I have a Google alert set up on my former employer. I have it set up mostly out of curiosity over what is going on in Mauritius with ISITECH Business School (where I was employed), now know as Oceana International Business School.
I was notified of this article just a few hours ago: Hindustan Times: Duped Students Threatened, Bullied in Mauritius. And this one: Indian students in refund stand-off with Mauritius college.
From the second article:
Oceana IBS Mauritius has an office in Hyderabad.
Manu Dass, an institute representative who spoke to The Hindu, refuted the allegations by the students. He claimed that when MQA permission for the ‘Level 2 Culinary Arts’ course was not obtained, the college had offered ‘Level 4 Travel and Tourism’ along with ‘Level 2 Food Production’ and this was accepted by the students, including Wahid. He was, however, evasive when asked if the other students would get refunds.
I know Manu. I don’t find it hard to believe that others considered him evasive. I believe that sort of behavior is ingrained completely in his personality.
Also from the second article:
“The college has cheated us without offering the courses promised in the offer letters. We were forced to study a course thrust upon us and work without any pay in the name of internship,” alleged Antosheen Raju Philip, who hails from Kerala. He is one of the 19 students still stuck in Mauritius,
I feel for Mr. Philip’s plight, the school owes me money too.
I’ve never posted about the school I worked for in the past as I always thought I might actually get paid the balance owed. I’ve always held out hope that things would turn around there, for both the students and my former coworkers. I don’t think this is going to happen at this point in time.
I really wanted things to work out in Mauritius. I went there with the notion that I was going to build a school that was going to be awesome. It is a shame the operation was so poorly capitalized. It is a shame the ownership appears to have an ethical problem too.