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USQ may face legal action

DUBAI - Students and parents yesterday said they may have to resort to legal action against the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) if it failed to concede their demand for refund of fees.

Students met university officials and demanded that they be either refunded their money spent to date or provided with other options including financial assistance to help pursue their courses at the USQ campus in Australia.

Fahd, Katerine, Mohammed Shaheen and many more students wondered “how can a reputed institution like USQ decide to close down and jeopardise the careers of hundreds of students.”

“We have now lost faith in all higher education institutions in Dubai after this sudden closure,” the students said, disclosing that their credits are not being accepted by other so-called reputed and accredited institutions in KV and outside. “We will have to start from the scratch and lose out on both money and time. How can we accept this for no fault of ours,” the students asked angrily hoping the USQ Australia or Ministry of Education comes to their rescue.

A worried parent complained that he could not afford his hard earned money spent on his daughter's education go down the drain. “I have paid Dh14,000 each for two semesters for a bachelors programme in Mass Communication and now where do we go from here. Many of us cannot afford to send our children to Australia, and moving to another university within KV is an expensive proposition as they are all highly priced and beyond our means.”

The USQ official in Dubai refused to comment on the institution's refund policy, but USQ Vice-Chancellor in Australia, Professor Bill Lovegrove in a statement yesterday promised to do their best to help strike a deal for the placement of students into other KV institutions. “Our chief concern now is to ensure that USQ students in Dubai are properly looked after,” he said.

Expressing disappointment with this outcome and regretting the inconvenience caused to students, Lovegrove disclosed that USQ had spent several months negotiating with Knowledge Village for greater operational control of its Dubai campus following the imposition of licensing conditions on the educational infrastructure provider and USQ.

“USQ put to KV an alternative operational structure and commenced negotiations with a potential new joint venture partner that had been introduced to USQ by KV. However, KV has this week recommended that USQ operate the campus as the sole licence holder, an unacceptable change in position by KV as it represents a total departure from USQ's international modus operandi, and also shifts all the financial risk of the campus to USQ. USQ has thus been left with no choice but to close its Dubai campus.”

He said: “In order to protect the integrity and international reputation of USQ, we feel that the decision to close this facility is the only way in which we can uphold the highly respected value of USQ's academic credentials.”

On the other hand, Knowledge Village said that in the best interests of the students, they have allowed USQ to complete the current semester. As a regular academic practice, almost all students have paid the fees only up to the semester ending September 22, 2005. However, if there are any cases where a student is entitled to a refund, we will address them on a case by case basis.

“KV is also discussing with universities like Middlesex University, Heriot Watt and University of Wollongong Dubai ways to transfer credits for USQ students so that they can continue their education without any disruption. We are fully aware of that the USQ students are doing a variety of courses. We are looking at the best possible solution. To continue their education with other universities in KV, the students will have to pay fees according to the fee structure of those universities. ”

Following enquiries of students of the delicensed USQ branch campus in Dubai Knowledge Village stated it has set up a dedicated information line for them to contact us for addressing any of their questions and to provide counselling for their specific issues. The number can be accessed by calling 043910000/04-3901111. Over the last few days, KV officials have met with several students and parents and explained to them what we are doing to deal with the situation.

USQ has also announced a number of measures to assist its nearly 400 students to continue their studies. Among them include -fees to be waived for the first four courses for those students who wish to transfer to USQ's distance education program. Alternatively, USQ will assist where possible for those students who wish to transfer to another university. Students wishing to study on-campus at USQ in Australia will be assisted by USQ with the transfer and obtaining visas.