Tunisia suspends private university for three years
Ministry inspection finds 'Université Libre de Tunis' to be in breach of higher education law.
TUNIS - The Tunisian authorities have suspended for a three year period a private university following an inspection that found many irregularities which were in breach of the law.
'Université Libre de Tunis' (ULT) and its owner Mohamed Boussairi Bouebdelli, were found to be violating the law set out by the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research to regulate private higher education in the country.
Following the withdrawal of ULT's license, all enrollment would be suspended for new students in all specialties for the academic years 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.
Furthermore, Consultative Commission in charge of Granting Licenses for the Creation of Private Higher Education Institutions withdrew the authorization granted to the ULT in all engineering specialties and streams.
It also designated an administrator from the teaching-research profession to run the ULT for the remaining period of the academic year 2009-2010 and for the academic years 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.
The inspection had identified a number irregularities and breaches, including:
- The ULT has no full-time director, in violation of the law.
- The ULT has used its license to advertise through the press for the activity of a foreign institution, and offer distance-learning courses leading to foreign degrees in chartered accountancy and a Master’s degree in accounting and auditing, without proper authorization from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.
- The ULT has hired teachers who work in public higher education institutions, without authorization from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, as required by the legal texts in force.
- The ULT has adopted a training system for the engineering profession that is not in conformity with the syllabus required for both public and private higher education institutions.
- The ULT has enrolled a number of students in “Licence Fondamentale” in Management (Finance stream) in disregard of the eligibility criteria required for such an enrollment.
- The inspection has also identified the case of a student, enrolled in 3rd year Engineering, who, without any legal justification, was deprived of his right to take his exams during the make-up session (2009).
