The Dublin-based Institute of Purchasing and Materials Management (IIPMM) has been forced to cancel its academic programmes and cease operating after racking up debts of nearly €500,000.
The institute, which had offices in Lower Mount Street, ran courses in procurement and supply chain management and was affiliated to the International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Management.
At its peak in the 1990s, the institute had up to 400 students enrolled in over 10 certificate, diploma and degree courses.
In July it notified Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), the statutory body charged with ensuring quality and standards in the further and higher education sectors, that it was cancelling its academic programmes for the coming year due to a lack of funds.
The institute’s courses have now been taken over by Griffith College, ensuring that students in the middle of various academic programmes can continue. QQI has also arranged for certificates to be issued to students who have completed courses.
The institute is, however, known to have run up sizeable debts with both Griffith College and University College Dublin (UCD) from which it leased space for lectures and seminars. It also said to have left several lecturers unpaid for work in the previous academic year.
Enrolled learners
However, in a statement, QQI said it had worked with the institute to assist an orderly wind-down of programmes, “ensuring the transfer of the institute’s enrolled learners to an alternative educational provider; and completing the certification of those students who have recently completed their studies”.
Padraig Walsh, chief executive of QQI, said: "While we were disappointed to learn of the closure of such a long-established educational provider, we are satisfied with the steps taken by Higher Education Colleges Association (HECA) and Griffith College, in particular, in working with QQI to protect the interests of students and in ensuring that all continuing students were facilitated, where possible, in finishing out their programmes."
“In situations of provider closures, the needs of students are paramount and the recent passage of the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Act 2019 will establish a new national Learner Protection Fund administered by QQI to further strengthen the existing system of learner protection across the whole education and training sector,” he said.
