Barbados Accreditation Council Nears Accreditation for BIMAP and SJPI, Joining Recognized Institutions

Two entities are in the final stages of being added to the list of institutions accredited by the Barbados Accreditation Council (BAC), Executive Director Lisa Gale has disclosed.

The Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity (BIMAP) and the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology (SJPI) will join the University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus, UWI Global Campus, the American University of Barbados, and the Insurance Institute of Barbados as institutions with accreditation status.

“They are both in candidacy for accreditation of institution and accreditation of programme. They should be accredited before the end of the year, specifically BIMAP, because they are due to have their site visit soon with our external evaluators,” Gale said.

She was speaking to Barbados TODAY during the BAC’s Open Day as the council commemorated two decades of service, showcasing the strides made in education quality.

Gale said the day was not just a celebration but a reaffirmation of the BAC’s commitment to excellence.

Activities featured presentations from various departments within BAC and institutions that are either registered or accredited by the council.

“We are [also] bringing attention to the importance of fraud,

people understanding how fraud can impact their qualification – both the receipt of qualification as well as the value of the qualification,” Gale said.

The BAC has four forms of recognition, the Executive Director explained.

“You can be recognised as a current skilled national, as a provider of tertiary education, as a provider of an accredited course or accredited programme, as well as an accredited institution.

“We also have recognition of qualification, where you can take your qualification from wherever, whether it is Thailand, Jamaica, Afghanistan, and it is brought here, we do a review to determine whether or not it is on the same level of anything that is locally provided, and we issue you with a recognition of qualification. You also get recognition of institutions, where we look to determine whether the school that you have attended is a recognised school.”