BENGALURU: Over 160 students who have joined Raffles Education Network in Koramangala here are in a fix now as the institute shut its doors in the last week of October, allegedly without intimating the students and parents.
The worried students and parents gathered on Friday to meet the representative of the management who came from Singapore, as the institute is a branch of Raffles Education Corporation, Singapore. But, the Vice President of Financial Operations of the Group in India, Sunil Peter, who had come to meet them, expressed his helplessness saying that they have informed the Bengaluru Institute about its closure in January itself. However, when Express tried to get his reaction over the issue he refused to comment.
Over 46 students who have completed their graduation in various courses including, Fashion Designing, Interior Designing, Graphic designing, Media Management, Multimedia, Product designing, etc, were supposed to get their degree certificates in a couple of days.
“As per the schedule, the convocation should to be held in mid-November, but all of a sudden, on October 25, they closed down the college. We are all shocked and do not know what to do or how to contact the management,” said a student.
Meanwhile, the students said the institute is now asking them to go and study for three more months at their Sri Lanka or Malaysia branch, or study for one more year at their main branch in Singapore to get the degree certificate.
“When we have completed the course by attending the classes regularly, why should we opt to study for three more months or a year more? They promised us certificates from Australia as per the agreement during the admission, now they are saying they cannot even give us the certificates,” explained another student.
According to the students, a batch of diploma students have been shifted to Singapore campus a few months back. “We were not aware of the closure. Whenever we enquired about the convocation they would say it will happen soon,” said a parent.
Nafees Fazal, former State Medical Education minister whose grandson also studied at the same institute and is struggling to get the certificate, said, “I will bring this to the notice of the Higher Education minister of Karnataka and also take this issue to the Union government. We are trying hard to contact the management people at Singapore, but no one is responding.”
She added, “It is a big fraud by the institute, which is operating in many countries.Action must be initiated and the government should take serious note of it.”