FAQ

All About EduTrust

EduTrust Singapore is a voluntary quality accreditation certification that is managed by the Committee of Private Education (CPE) for Private Education Institutes (PEIs). There are 3 types of awards, namely the EduTrust Provisional License (1-Year validity), the EduTrust Certification (4-Years validity) and the EduTrust Star (4-Years validity).

Having any EduTrust (i.e., Provisional, 4 Year Certification and EduTrust Star) Certifications would allow a PEI to recruit foreign students and to apply the Student Pass for them with the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA).

However, having the full 4-Years EduTrust Certificate in Singapore and EduTrust Star would allow PEIs register pathway programmes (i.e., diploma and advanced diplomas leading to a top up degree) and Degree Programmes. PEIs can then also deliver their programmes overseas with a collaboration centre with awards or certificates coming from the Singapore-based PEI. This is similar to exporting the PEI Programme overseas.

No, it is not tough!

With the correct experience and expertise, attaining the EduTrust Certification can be a relatively smooth process. The golden question to ask is if the help you are getting (i.e., either an employee, consultant or a QA Firm like EduValue) is up-to-date with handling EduTrust Certifications. A good general indication is that they have gone through at least 15 EduTrust Certifications every year as the Site Assessment requirements can evolve over time.

There can be many reasons for this but in short, the majority of these PEIs that got downgraded was because they were not aware of or updated with the changes to EduTrust as they had not gone for any full renewals in 4-Years and the employees that were handling the Quality Assurance, Assessments and EduTrust were not independent and did not flag up the issues that could be easily rectified.

Not as long as you do it with the correct strategies. EduTrust is a Quality Accreditation which intrinsically aims to enhance the quality of your systems and processes. If you have set-up the correct systems and processes, you will be able to achieve the 4-Years EduTrust with or without additional resources. The correct fundamentals and foundations need to be developed and implemented. This would also help your PEI to increase its efficiency and enhance its quality over time – with or without EduTrust.

 

Attaining EduTrust is actually very tough for new start-ups or even foreign established firms that are setting up their PEI in Singapore. The pre-requisite for applying for an EduTrust would require a 4-Year Enhanced Registration Framework (ERF) Certification. However, for new PEIs, CPE is likely to award only a 2-Years ERF. This means that the PEI would not be able to apply for EduTrust in the first 2 Years. Once the 2 Years is up, the PEI, depending on their performances, could either retain the 2 Years ERF or attain a 4-Year ERF Certification. In the event that it is still a 2-Years ERF Certification, the PEI would need to wait another 2 Years to be able to apply for EduTrust. If your PEI is new and focuses on foreign students and / or degree programmes, it might be a chicken and egg situation and you will be better at acquiring a PEI with either the 4-Year ERF or EduTrust Licenses.

EduTrust is based mainly on the Guidance Document 3.0. This document provides all EduTrust Requirements that includes 7 different Criterions. An assessment including both desktop and on-site would be conducted on the PEI that is applying for the EduTrust Singapore Certificate.

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