New legislation gives consumer protection to thousands of students in private colleges for the first time this year. This follows the enactment of the Qualifications Act earlier this summer.

According to the Qualifications (Education and Training) Act 1999, bonding is now compulsory for all courses leading to qualification from State awarding bodies.

In the past, financial and academic bonding arrangements was left up to the private colleges. Two years ago the collapse of the Advanced Technology College in Merrion Square in Dublin highlighted the need for this type of protection. Last year bonding in the private colleges was in a healthier state with financial bonding in place in eight colleges. Portobello College in Dublin was the only private college which had both financial and academic bonding - the latter means there is an arrangement for the student to progress academically in the event of the college collapsing - in place in many.

Diarmaid Hegarty, director of Griffith College in Dublin 8 and chairman of the Higher Education Colleges Association, which is an umbrella group for seven private colleges, welcomes the legislation. "It regularises the whole question, in particular the recognition of private colleges," he says. "It's in the interests of the consumer and the colleges. We welcome the consumer protection position. It means that those people in colleges who are doing it correctly will have no difficulty. It's the colleges which are taking shortcuts that are not safe," he points out.

The Minister, Micheal Martin, told the Seanad in July, at the last stage in the introduction of this latest piece of educational legislation, that "commercial profit making providers will be required to have in place arrangements to ensure that learners can be provided with the education and training service which they have paid for or, if this is not possible, that the learners can be refunded monies paid.

"The nature of the arrangements are to be agreed between the commercial institutions and the awarding bodies," he explained. "Given that the most important issue is that the learner be enabled to complete a programme, the Bill provides that this is the preferable option. Otherwise a refund of the most recently paid fees would be made. In addition, and without prejudice to the obligations of the providers, the two awarding councils will be obliged to make efforts to find replacement provision for learners who suffer from such an insolvency," he added.

These commercial providers are not obliged to have their provision certified by the two awarding councils, he said.

"These protections will also apply for learners in private commercial colleges where validation of a programme is withdrawn."