FIVE COLLEGES of higher education from the Czech Republic were in Dublin recently to have discussions with the National Council for Educational Awards about getting the Irish body to validate their qualifications.

They were following the lead of a college in the eastern Czech town of Uherske Hradiste, 146 of whose students received NCEA certificates and diplomas in economics and foreign trade, industrial computing and business law last October.

They were able to do this because Sligo RTC, which has led the way among the RTCs in making connections with European colleges, applied on behalf of the Czech college as if it were an outreach campus.

The Czech Association of Schools of Professional Higher Education, which groups 25 non-university third-level colleges in the Czech Republic, is now trying to widen the Irish connection.

Their problem is that the Czech higher-education authorities currently recognise only awards from the country's universities.

But why Ireland? The CASPHE's chief executive, Michal Karpisek, says they needed an EU partner to help them improve the standards of their courses, exams and qualifications. Czech students are "qualification mad", he says, and an award validated by an EU country "offers something extra".

Czech colleges are very keen on international contacts and exchanges, he adds.

He says they found what the NCEA offered particularly attractive because it meant the validation of qualifications by a national body, rather than by individual institutions, as was the case in some EU countries. They are keen that the NCEA would eventually validate their degrees as well as their sub-degree qualifications.

NCEA acting director Seamus Puirseil hopes that in the future the body would also be able to validate such subjects as engineering and construction studies.

If the colleges from Prague (two), Ceske Budejovice, Kutna Hora and Zlin, succeed in convincing the NCEA that their courses are of sufficiently high standard, Sligo would apply for validation on their behalf, he says.

"For our purposes they'll all be Sligo students," he says.