The Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) is seeking to collaborate with new overseas universities as it confirmed the discontinuation of its online learning partnership with the University of Staffordshire (UoS).
The UoS is a UK-based institution that was supposedly providing academic online services to Guyana through a third-party facilitator, International Skill Development Corporation (ISDC).
The agencies are among institutions collaborating to deliver undergraduate, postgraduate degrees, and other tertiary-level education programmes to Guyanese students online.
However, a public statement yesterday said that GOAL became aware of difficulties between the two agencies in January that were negatively impacting students enrolled in their courses.
Some of these difficulties pertained to a mismatch in course offerings, access to the Learning Management System (LMS), and inaccuracies in course matrices.
GOAL noted that the issue between the two agencies worsened further, with neither of them informing Guyana of the discord, which, according to GOAL, is now seeking legal resolution. The dispute even led to UoS denying affiliation with the GOAL programme.
GOAL had noted, however, that “At no point prior to this had either institution formally notified GOAL of the breakdown in their collaboration or its implications for our scholars.”
It was explained, however, that the affected Guyanese students were provided with opportunities to transfer to other partnering universities, and that learners would receive some feedback from the local programme before the end of the week.
“Additionally,” it said, “ISDC is actively engaging five UK universities—Arden University, Queen Margaret University, University of the West of Scotland, Wrexham University, and Cardiff Metropolitan University—that are likely to accept our awardees and recognise the credits they have earned under the disrupted partnership.”
GOAL said it has transformed lives through academic and professional training, facilitated by strategic partnerships with over 20 local, regional, and international institutions, including third-party partners such as the ISDC (UK), Structuralia (Spain), UNICAF (Cyprus), and Coursera (USA), to enhance the delivery of its programmes.
These partnerships provide Guyanese students with opportunities to pursue academic programmes in diverse fields, including business, technology, healthcare, and engineering.
Between 2021 and 2024, GOAL said it awarded a total of 29,758 scholarships, with the number of scholarships granted increasing steadily each year.
Since 2022, however, GOAL has collaborated with ISDC in delivering the Get Ready for Opportunities to Work (GROW) initiative, which allowed over 4,000 Guyanese to access tertiary-level education.
GOAL has apologised to its awardees for the inconvenience and frustration caused by this situation.
