The closure of five institutes run by Global Campus Management Group in Australia's Sydney and Melbourne has raised questions about the future of some 500 Gujarati students studying in these institutes.
These students were supposed to get their degrees in just two to three weeks. Instead, they were left in the dark till the last moment. On Friday GCMG closed five of its colleges based in Sydney and Melbourne all of a sudden without any prior notice to the students.
The closed institutes have nearly 3,000 students from India and around 500 from various parts of Gujarat. The colleges that have closed are the GCM Fashion Institute, Meridian International School, Meridian International Hotel School, International Design School, and the Meridian College.
"We have not got any confirmation from the college authorities about the closure. We were under the impression that we will be getting our degrees in just two weeks. However, on Saturday we realised that we are in trouble," said a student studying in Meridian International Hotel School over phone.
According to reports some of the students staged a protest against the closure of the colleges. The reports said that the concerned authorities have not informed students about what future course of action can be taken.
These reports have also mentioned India's deputy high commissioner to Australia, V K Sharma, saying that the system has gone corrupt.DNA tried to contact the concerned authorities including the Indian High Commissioner to Australia and Australian High Commission in New Delhi but no official was available for comment.
According to Kumar Mehta, a city-based study abroad programme consultant if authorities help the students in getting admission to other institutes within 15 days, there won't be any major set back for them.
"But once a fortnight is over the students will face many problems," said Mehta.
Another consultant, who did not want to be identified, said that many educational institutes in Australia do not follow government norms in their greed to earn more money. He said that many institutes admit more students than they are authorised.
"If the government doesn't step in to help the students they will have to suffer," said the consultant. "The incident is an eye-opener for all students who plan to study abroad. They need to be very careful while choosing a college," said Harsh Joshi of Overseas Education Study.
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