Education Update - Contracts
Published: 20th January 2010
Validations - a lesson in due diligence
The THE reports that controversy has arisen at the University of Wales about its accreditation of theology degrees offered by two private evangelical institutions in Denmark.
The university validates theology BA programmes at the Lutheran School of Theology in Aarhus, known as the Menighedsfakultetet and the Copenhagen Lutheran School of Theology, known as the Dansk Bibel-Institute.
Reports in the Danish press have claimed that the institutions teach a fundamentalist form of theology and that the degrees do not meet Danish standards.
It has also been reported that as a result of Wales' validation, the University of Aarhus is now obliged to accept students holding the BAs onto its masters programmes due to operation of the Bologna Process. It is claimed that this has led to growth in the number of people taking the courses as students seek to take advantage of the "loophole".
In Denmark, there is no accreditation system for private universities, leaving them little choice but to seek validation overseas.
EU could "fine" defaulting authorities
In April 2009 the European Commission published its proposal to repeal and replace Directive 2000/35/EC on combating late payment in commercial transactions (implemented in the UK by the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, as amended).The Directive established a default mechanism to deal with late payments in all commercial transactions (including those between public authorities and private sector companies) which lead to the delivery of goods or the provision of services for remuneration.
The Commission's proposed amendments include requiring public authorities to pay businesses within 30 days of receipt of invoice (if they fail to do so, the business becomes entitled to interest plus 5% of the invoice amount). In addition, the Commission proposes that a clause which excludes interest for late payment will always be considered unfair, that businesses should be able to claim both late payment interest and reimbursement of any recovery costs and that the right of member states to exclude claims of interest for less than five euros should be removed.
Critics of the plans state companies could deliberately create misleading invoices to cause delays and take advantage of the available penalties.
