March 19, 2017 - Higher Education Relevance Quality Agency (HERQA) is discussing with private higher education institutions to introduce a new directive which will regulate them and possibly penalize them in case of breaches, according to the Reporter. The directive, which was prepared by the Agency last year, was tabled to stakeholders including owners, presidents and associations of private higher education institutions for a final discussion. The discussion was meant to receive comments regarding the directive. “Once we receive comments from the interested parties we will take them into consideration,” Tarekgne Geressu, communication head of the Agency told The Reporter. The draft directive gives the Agency the power to penalize institutions that don't follow regulations under civil and criminal law. “The latest one is more detailed and specific than the zero draft,” Solomon Tadesse,” head of legal department at the Agency, said. In addition, we added a list of principles along with the misconducts and penalties, he said. It categorizes the misconducts along with their corresponding penalties. In this respect it listed 15 misconducts and their corresponding penalties. The penalty varies from issuing a warning letter to cancellation of licenses. Irregularities include opening branches and offering different programs without the permission of the Agency, registering students who do not fulfill the academic requirement and receiving students beyond the permitted enrollment by the Agency. The Agency, which has its offices only in Addis Ababa, oversees around 111 colleges, universities, university-colleges and institutes scattered across the country