Close ‘worthless’ school, visa students urge
Government must protect others, 18 say in petition Clinton bowed out as speaker for gala event
Eighteen students of the Canadian College of Business and Computers say they want the school shut down, so others don’t waste time and money on what they claim is a “ worthless” education. The students, all in Canada on study visas, delivered a petition to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities yesterday. They also plan to complain to their national embassies.
“ We feel many more students could become victims unless the government takes steps to protect them,” said Marc Bapaga, Toronto-based consultant for the Association for the Development of Education in Africa, whom the students have enlisted to help them. The students say they made the move after college founder and president Shelvan Kannuthurai threatened to pull some of the students’ visas if they didn’t immediately pay the balance of fees owing, as much as $ 5,000 each.
Kannuthurai’s plans for an Ottawa gala introducing his plan to educate thousands of Africans through Professeurs pour la liberté, an outgrowth of his Toronto school, collapsed last week after former U. S. president Bill Clinton suddenly bowed out as guest speaker. The event would have been held last night; instead, Clinton was in Toronto at a motivational seminar, speaking on leadership.
Kannuthurai, who the students say has agreed to meet with them today, declined to comment to the Toronto Star. The college has faced numerous financial difficulties, allegations that it owes $ 200,000 in promised refunds, and lawsuits by former students who claimed it delivered a substandard education. Ehsan Mahpour, who started a computer diploma program at the college in January, said he was disillusioned as soon as he arrived. He said he was misled by a photo of the college on its website, showing its previous location in a Bloor St. W. office tower. He had thought he would be getting an education equivalent to a Seneca College diploma. “ When I arrived I was shocked because the college was just two rooms. I thought the whole building was the campus,” said the computer engineering graduate from Iran, who has five years of web design experience.
Like others who signed the petition, he said he was disappointed by the quality of instruction and the lack of equipment and labs. “The teacher just read from PowerPoint slides. We asked questions he couldn’t answer,” said Ehsan Gharahgozlou, another Iranian computer graduate studying at the college.
Kannuthurai moved the college to a townhouse he owns at 32 Park Rd., near Yonge and Bloor Sts., in June, after skipping out on nearly $ 70,000 rent owed to his previous landlord.
Although the college advertised that it would provide co- op experience, most students are left to secure these four- month placements on their own, said Mahpour and Gharahgozlou, spokesmen for the group. Both found placements through a friend with a small Toronto computer firm owned by an Iranian immigrant.
Student complaints to college officials, including its director of education, were brushed off, they say. They didn’t know where to turn for help.
“ Our English is poor. We don’t know the system and rules here. We don’t have the money to fight,” Mahpour said.
“ I sold all I had to come here, but now I feel I have no future.”
After an influx of African students in April, Mahpour and Gharahgozlou say, college staff asked them to suspend their studies and become full-time instructors — which they did for two months, until a Nigerian state government that had sent the new students to the college abruptly withdrew them.
College staff persuaded them to work for free, to gain Canadian experience, but they were eventually paid $500 for their work. Both received “ scholarships” — actually discounts on their fees. Kannuthurai has demanded that some students who received such scholarships repay the money if they withdraw. Once eager and hopeful, the students are now suffering sleepless nights worrying about their future.
“ We want to go back to our country with something, not a worthless certificate from a bad-name college,” said Gharahgozlou.
Paul Kitchin, executive director of the Ontario Association of Career Colleges, said he is “ shocked and dismayed” about the situation. Kannuthurai’s college was a member of the voluntary association in the past, but is not now, Kitchin said.
“ If all the allegations are true, I don’t see how it can continue to operate.”
If the school is shut down, the association’s other member colleges may help students complete their studies, he said.
Moreover, the ministry has a consumer protection bond — funded by the career colleges — to remedy situations where refunds are owed to students. The ministry was not able to respond by the Star’s deadline yesterday.