BENGALURU: Students of Raffles Education Network, Koramangala, who were left clueless after the institute shut its doors in the last week of October, allegedly without intimating them, now have some reason to cheer as the other share holders of the institute have promised a rescue package.
In an official communication, Raffles Education Investment (India) Pvt Ltd and Raffles Design International India Pvt Ltd, shareholders (the Raffles Entities) of Educomp-Raffles Higher Education Limited (ERHEL) said, “We are deeply concerned that our dispute with the other joint venture shareholders, subsidiaries of Educomp Solutions Ltd, over ERHEL, which manages Raffles Millennium Institute (RMI), has caused disruption to some students in Bengaluru.
The educational welfare of all our students, including students of our joint venture-managed schools in India, is of paramount importance. Accordingly,...we have quickly put together a rescue package to provide all affected students the opportunity to complete their studies at other Raffles colleges until they graduate. This initiative will be funded entirely by the Raffles Entities, even though accountability rests with ERHEL.
“We are committed to help these students obtain quality education and graduate, not withstanding that we have had no control over the management of ERHEL that has allowed the situation at RMI to deteriorate to this state. As a further goodwill gesture, we will also extend financial assistance to RMI employees whose salaries had not been paid by ERHEL.”
Former medical education minister Nafees Fazal, (whose grandson is also one of the students) said, “ Due to some technical issues, 43 students were not able to get their degree certificates in India. I sent an email to their main branch in Singapore and they responded by sending a representative, who arrived in Bengaluru last Wednesday to solve the problems. They have agreed to send the students to Colombo, Australia and Kuala Lampur for three months so that they could get their degrees. This expense would be borne by Raffles Singapore.”
On November 19, Express reported that over 160 students were stranded as the institute was closed without providing any information to students.