Society defends decision to quash course accreditation

THE Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI) has defended its decision to withdraw recognition from a course that has left 62 students in the lurch.

The students had been studying at the American College Dublin (ACD) and most have now transferred to the Dublin Business School for another psychological course - where the emphasis is slightly different.

The society had come under fire for pulling the plug on the course before the students finished it.

But the PSI said the accreditation panel provided a detailed report to the college about its course and the necessary changes required.

The college was awarded accreditation for one year to enable these changes to be made and the course still had accreditation until November.

The course team was consulted in and supportive of this process.

Challenge

As a commercial organisation, the college felt this standard was a challenge to achieve and decided not to accept these recommendations and, in turn, forgo attempts to achieve accreditation, the society said in a statement.

PSI president Dr Niall Pender said: 'Unfortunately, the PSI cannot award indefinite accreditation to a course when core standards were not met as this would reflect poorly on the students graduating from those years, and we would fail in our duty to protect the public.

'While the PSI understands that ACD must make commercial decisions, it regrets that the authorities of the ACD have decided not to pursue accreditation despite the society's expressed concerns about their students.

'The PSI remains, at all times, willing to discuss a plan to enable the ACD students to graduate from their psychology course with an accredited degree,' he added.

- John Walshe

Irish Independent