Mebruk Mohammed,in her early 20s, is a second-year nursing student at Kea-Med Medical College. Having graduated from a private secondary school in her neighbourhood, it was her placement in Dilla University for engineering courses that drove her to seek private educational institutions for an academic career.

“It was too far from home,” she says, talking about her placement in Dilla, some 295Km from the capital. “I am also no good with numbers.”

After discussing the matter with her family, she decided to stay in Addis Abeba and settled on Kea-Med College, which had a campus in Ayer Tena. She chose to major in nursing, as did 50 other nursing students that enrolled at the College in 2017.

“The teachers are professional, and the library is decent,” says Mebruk, who is currently in her second year.

It was thus a shock to learn that Kea-Med was not licensed to graduate students in clinical nursing all along. This was according to a recent audit the Higher Education Relevance & Quality Agency (HERQA), the government body responsible for regulating private higher education institutions, carried out on 167 private higher education institutions in Addis Abeba and its surroundings.

The audit found irregularities at 46 institutions. Contrary to their permits, the colleges were teaching regular classes when in fact they had permits to teach distance learning programs; not renewing accreditation certificates; changing locations without notifying the Agency; and using unapproved higher institutional teaching titles.

The audit found that 27 institutions were operating without accreditation by the Agency.

While some were operating for no more than a semester, others have been operating for two years or more, according to Andualem Admassie (PhD), director general of Higher Education Relevance & Quality Agency.

Private institutions must have a curriculum that matches the minimum national standards set by the Ministry of Science & Higher Education to be accredited. They should also have the necessary academic staff, institutional governing structures, teaching materials, classrooms and libraries.

One of the oldest private institutions caught up in the audit is Rift Valley University, which was established 20 years ago. Its campuses located in Ayat in Addis Abeba; Ashewa Meda, on the outskirts of the capital; Sheno, North Shoa; and Holeta, a town 25Km west of the capital, were not recognised by the Agency as teaching campuses.

“Our Sheno branch was never a campus but a satellite station for distance learning,” said Fikadu Ashenafi, administrative and development vice president of Rift Valley University. “We were trying to move our Goro compound to the Ayat campus. In the ensuing delay for approval, both facilities started operating.”

Nonetheless, the Ayat campus is equipped with facilities and was, in fact, admitting students. Fikadu admits that Rift Valley never received a permit to open campuses in Ashewa Meda and Holeta.

“The problem is bureaucratic hurdles and slow paperwork from the Agency,” he added. “The Agency makes us wait almost a year for a permit after we request it.”

Another case the audit found is the change of higher institutional teaching titles. The first accreditation a college gets lasts for three years, and the college from then on will have to be re-accredited every five years by the Agency. It is through such a process that institutions are accredited with titles such as “university”, “university college”, “college” and “institute”.

For an institution to earn the “university” or “university college” title it has to have a minimum enrollment capacity of 2,000 students in the regular program in at least three academic units larger than departments. It must also have a record of at least three consecutive classes of graduates in a degree program.

Three colleges were found calling themselves university colleges, a title which was not granted by the Agency.

“The use of "university college" by these institutions is to deceive students and is more than false marketing,” Andualem told Fortune.

However, he acknowledges that there are gaps in the part of the Agency that is leading to deficiencies.