NQA faces backlash over new fees for foreign qualifications

The president of the Student Union of Namibia Benhard Kavau has condemned the Namibian Qualification Authority’s (NQA) decision to charge fees for evaluation of qualifications obtained from foreign institutions of higher learning.

Kavau yesterday said the decision was a money-making scheme and that the NQA was stealing from “poor students”.

“What is the use of them charging now? Let the students bring the qualifications.

There is no need to steal from the poor students that are already struggling, so they must find another way to make money.

They are not a profit-making organisation,” he said.

He also said his union was not consulted prior to the implementation of the decision.

“Maybe they consulted other student organisations but whatever student organisation supports that decision will be selling out,” he added.

Namibia National Students Organisation (Nanso) president Dorthea Nangolo also says Nanso was not consulted, adding that even if they were consulted, they would not accept the decision.

“You cannot charge to evaluate international qualifications because essentially that is their job.

It does not make any reasonable sense to charge students,” she says.

She says Nanso will see how it will engage the NQA and that the decision is not acceptable.

The NQA on Monday announced it will charge fees for the evaluation of qualifications obtained from foreign institutions.

According to the statement issued by NQA acting chief executive Harmoni Beukes, the evaluation fees on foreign qualifications will be implemented starting 2 January 2025.

“The implementation of evaluation fees for foreign qualifications will enable the NQA to optimally leverage the services it provides, thereby enhancing its sustainability.

The NQA will accept payments for evaluation of foreign qualifications through electronic transfer and point of sales,” Beukes said.

Beukes said this decision comes under the authority of the NQA Act, which grants the NQA the right to charge for its services.

She said the fees will vary depending on the type of application and urgency.

Beukes added a normal application for a foreign qualification evaluation will cost N$360, while an urgent application will cost N$720.

A normal evaluation typically takes 30 days, while an urgent evaluation is processed within 15 days.

The appeal of an evaluation certificate is N$210 per qualification and for urgent evaluations it will be N$570 per qualification.

Payments can be made electronically or at designated points of sale.

Asked why the fees are only being implemented now when the law was passed many years ago, NQA spokesperson Lina Ndengu yesterday told The Namibian the decision to introduce fees was made to enable the NQA to digitise its services and improve efficiency.

“Knowing the situation in the country where young people are looking for employment, as NQA we felt that we shouldn’t be charging these fees in the past but now, looking forward, we want to digitise our system.

“We know that we might not get the funding we need because we are a public enterprise.

We don’t generate any profit so our funding solely comes from the government,” Ndengu said.

She says the NQA has been getting calls to digitise its services for people to submit online applications for evaluations.

“Because we don’t have the means to get these services in, we thought of charging, since we already have an active regulation that says we can charge fees for our services so that we can basically start to become sustainable,” she said.

Ndengu added that foreign students who want to study in Namibia are required to submit evaluation requests and they then have to courier them as the current NQA system is manual.

“We are trying to make things easier for everyone.

That’s why we are implementing the fees, so we can get funds for us to digitise our services,” she said.

Ndengu said the student unions have not been informed about NQA’s decision.

She said the decision was only taken recently in a NQA council meeting.