Ottawa: The sudden closure of three colleges in Canada’s Quebec has left thousands of Indian students in a major predicament, the Indian High Commission in Ottawa said. The High Commission has issued an advisory for Indian students affected by the abrupt change in the status of their educational institutions.
The three colleges — M College in Montreal, CDE College in Sherbrooke, and CCSQ College in Longueuil — soon after advancing the last date for tuition fee submission and requiring students to pay up hefty quantities suddenly, issued a notice to students earlier this month that they were closing down altogether, reported NDTV.
According to Canada’s CBC News, all three colleges — run by the same recruiting firm, Rising Phoenix International (RPI) Inc. — have filed for bankruptcy. The creditor protection request comes a little over a year after Quebec began probing several private colleges, including M College and CDE College, for students’ “questionable” hiring practices in India.
“The High Commission has been approached by several students from India who were enrolled in the three institutions,” said the High Commission of India was quoted as saying in an advisory released on Friday by NDTV.
“In the event that they find any difficulty in reimbursement of their fees or transfer of fees, they may file a complaint with Ministry of Higher Education, Government of Quebec,” the advisory stated. The advisory though assured students that there were avenues through which they could attempt to recover the money lost.