College deceived students, authority's report reveals

A private training establishment has been found to have been running an English language course without authorisation. Photo / Thinkstock

A private training establishment has been found to have been running an English language course without authorisation, deceiving Immigration New Zealand and enrolling students knowing they would not have time to complete their courses.

This revelation on the Traditional Chinese Medicine College comes after a poor review by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority last month, when the authority said it had "serious concerns about the college's academic processes".

Students Hongchul Lee, Jee-Hyuk Im and Chigwon Han have engaged a lawyer in an attempt to get their fees back after feeling they had been misled by college director Myoung-sik Kim.

In a letter to the lawyer acting for the three, Anand Singh, the authority said it was upholding the complaints made by the students against the college.

"TCM delivered an English language course to students ... when it did not have course approval or consent to assess for such a course," said Vaughan Oates, the authority's risk and compliance adviser.

"TCM enrolled students in the 3-year diploma programme when it knew the qualification and unit standards are expiring in December 2012, meaning the students would not have sufficient time to be able to complete the programme or gain the qualification."

The college had also told Immigration NZ that a student was enrolled in a Bachelor of Health Science when it was in fact the diploma course, Mr Oates said.

The authority also found that the college, in Eden Terrace, Auckland, continued to claim in January that it was running a degree programme even after the application for approval was withdrawn in May last year.

Mr Singh said the students' complaint was that the college and its director had "engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct".

The college director, also known as Elisha, said there was no intention to mislead, and blamed his staff and students for the "mistakes".

Mr Kim said he had previously owned a language school, and thought he was able to conduct English classes in the new college.

"I rely on the expertise of my staff to bring to my attention any matter that requires attention. This was not forthcoming," he said.

Mr Kim said there was also no intention to deceive Immigration into thinking it was running a degree programme.

"This was a mistake by the student when he completed the details on the enrolment form, and was not picked up by the administration manager."

Mr Kim said the college had made improvements since the report, and he was confident it would be providing "better quality" education.