Higher education institutions have been instructed to accredit their courses in accordance with the Program Accreditation Guidelines and have been provided with a specific deadline.

In an announcement made today, the Maldives Qualifications Authority (MQA) stated that it had previously notified higher education and training institutions in the Maldives that programs previously approved must seek re-accreditation under these guidelines. However, the MQA noted that it has observed some institutions continuing to run programs without applying for accreditation as per the new regulations.

While efforts were made to hold a meeting with these institutions, the authority stated that they were only able to meet with a very few of them.

"Among these, it has not been possible to contact approximately 30 centers through the email addresses or phone numbers they provided to the Ministry," the MQA said.

While a deadline until the end of next month has been given to accredit the courses, the MQA also stated that if authorization is not obtained, courses being conducted by such centers without accreditation will be invalidated starting from October 22 of next year.