South African Theological Seminary Accreditation



South African Theological Seminary Accreditation

The following programmes are accredited by the Council on Higher Education (CHE), the Education and Training Quality Assurer (ETQA) of the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) and are registered by the Department of Higher Education(registration number 2001/HE08/005):

  • Higher Certificate in Christian Counselling
  • Higher Certificate in Christian Life
  • Bachelor of Theology
  • Bachelor of Theology Honours
  • Master of Theology
  • Doctor of Philosophy in Theology

Legal Status

We are registered as a Section 21 company (Reg. no. 2002/005184/08), a PBO (18/11/13/2403) and an NPO (033-343-NPO).

We are also a founder member of the National Association of Distance Education Organisations in South Africa (NADEOSA) and we are a member of the Association of Private Providers of Education, Training and Development (APPETD), the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE), the International Council for Evangelical Theological Education (ICETE), the International Council for Higher Education (ICHE), the CHEA International Quality Group (CIQG) and the World Evangelical Theological Institute Association (WETIA).



Our accreditation and Department of Higher Education registration provide assurance that the quality of our programmes is of the highest standard. Our programmes are therefore nationally and internationally comparable and the credits earned with us are truly “portable”, i.e. they can be transferred to other accredited, registered institutions. The increasing number of international students confirms the acceptability of our programmes around the world.

Recently our MTh and PhD programmes were submitted to two of the most frequently used and highly recommended evaluators in the USA, namely the International Education Research Foundation, Inc. (ierf.org) and the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers’ International Education Services (http://ies.aacrao.org), and both confirmed that these degrees represent attainment of a level of education comparable to the equivalent degrees from a regionally accredited university in the United States. Our degrees are also recognised by the German website anabin.kmk.org/ which provides information about the evaluation of foreign qualifications.



The IQAS (International Qualification Assessment Service) in Alberta, Canada, an independent, secular assessment service used by many Canadian universities to establish the quality of foreign qualifications, has evaluated the SATS B.Th. as the local equivalent of a “three year Bachelor’s degree with a focus in theology”.

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