The Grenada National Accreditation Board (GNAB) with support from COL, hosted a two-day consultation forum at the Grenada National Stadium in October 2018 to review Grenada’s existing Accreditation Act and solicit stakeholder feedback on proposed revisions.

Mrs Pauleen Finlay, Executive Director of GNAB explained that the review had become necessary because “the present act does not adequately cover ‘open’ quality arrangements but instead only covers the familiar domestic, public, brick-and-mortar universities delivering face-to-face education, with little application to transnational, private, for-profit education and new delivery modes such as distance education and e-learning. With new trends in creating flexible tertiary systems, there is need for a framework that captures the new practices and policies that guide the accreditation system.”

According to COL Education Specialist for the Virtual University for Small Sates of the Commonwealth (VUSSC), Dr Mairette Newman, the proposed revisions to the legal framework reflect the most recent international guidelines for higher education quality assurance practices and take into account growth areas such as transnational education and online learning.

The Executive Director of GNAB, Pauleen Finlay acknowledged COL’s support to Small Island States of the Commonwealth in the area of higher education, while expressing optimism in GNAB’s continued progress in the field of accreditation.