UK: We experience deceived by TASMAC thought Indian students

I worked in Dubai for the past few years [Jag deep Singh said SALAD] and my company said a master's degree would give me better opportunities. Of TARMAC (Training and Advanced Studies in Management and Communications) in Pane, India, I deduced going to Canterbury Christchurch University in the UK, I also looked at.

  Tarmac marketing is very aggressive. Indians mortgage their homes to study in Britain. By closing the college we are left with nowhere to go.

  Tarmacs way you more than you need to stay.

For example, said they had my English was not good enough and that I had to take the RAP (English for academic purposes), which recognized their own way and nowhere else. There were 43 students in two classes in 2010, EMO. But the 43 passed only three. If you fail the exam you paid the examination fee of £ 75 and the second exam costs £ 200. Only 12 students passed the second examination.

After that they said I should have a "qualifying masters program does, although they have accepted me on the 12-month MBA. The masters qualifying program lasted three months and the EMP already lasted three moths so I was at TARMAC for six months and have not even started the MBA that I have applied to do.

In my opinion it was just their way of getting money from us.

I was so angry I had a meeting with Peasant Due, the head of TARMAC, six months ago and told him I did not want to go and that I was to fund access to (public) Middlesex University.

There has been a rumor going around three months ago may be closed TASMAC. When I went Due and a face-to-face meeting, I told him I had heard these rumors. He said that I should spread rumors and that I should just concentrate on my studies.

TASMAC advises students to October 6 at 11:45 by e-mail that they were going to operations due to UK Border Agency changes cease [says Sunset Patel].

The next day, on October 7, the campus was closed. The same note that we have e-mail is placed on the Wimble and Kingsbury campus [on the outskirts of London]. We were not allowed. There were trucks loading up furniture and other things. They are all taking away.

On Monday, October 10 a meeting has been arranged for the MBA students. At Holon College. Two people from the University of Wales [that TASMAC grades ratified] were there. We have no idea how they managed to arrange it almost overnight if they did not know that TASMAC is closed until 6 October.

When we Holon College [which is led by the private education company Kaplan Financial] on October 10, there were pamphlets lying on the seats on the Holon MBA course. This is the title of the "Closing TASMAC student rescue plan for MBA students.

It will be £ 800 (US $ 1,260) per semester. But we have already paid thousands of pounds! This money, £ 800, was believed to be a 70% discount on the fees Holon. But we do not see why we have to pay again when we have already paid.

Although the University of Wales representatives were there, they said nothing and for every question we asked them what they just said, "I do not know." We did not get any support from the University of Wales.

Some of the students offered places back in India [Where TASMAC campuses in Pane and Bangalore], but without any repayments on the money we pay in England, even though the courses in India are much cheaper than those in London.

It is also not an option for students from countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Cambodia, Macedonia or Ukraine - there are many nationalities affected by the closure TASMAC.

People have no idea what to do or where to go. We are all under so much stress. Some of them even pay their rent by TASMAC advance and now they have to vacate the property. While TASMAC the money they do not have it to the owners. These students will homeless. What will they do?

Some of our Indian students contacted the Indian High Commission in London that first day [October 7]. Some of the Indian students even threatened to go on hunger strike outside the High Commission. When we took over there to ask them to speak to UKBA to try to relax the situation for TASMAC students. The Indian Foreign Ministry was informed.

But TASMAC the press briefings in India where they continue to say the University of Wales and the director of TASMAC trying to help the stranded students get admission in various colleges so that their studies disrupted held given.

But they are not telling anyone about these extra costs this other colleges we want to ask. Holon disagree status UKBA a highly reliable. They have turned it gets by 2012. What if they hand? If they closed who will take the responsibility again?

The public-funded institutions here to accept the TASMAC credits. Only a [public] university we accept to start in February, but we ask for £ 800 per subject. I have some five subjects still to complete, plus my dissertation.

But what about those who just started? It will be a lot of money for them. Many of us chose a private college, because they are cheaper for international students than public funded universities. Especially MBAs are very, very expensive for international students.

We feel cheated by TASMAC.

But we do not know what our future when we cannot transfer credits to other universities and private colleges we want to ask again. UKBA can only stay 60 days if we do not on a course. Then we left, so there is additional stress.

We would like our grades here on in London. The cost is high, but with the post-work law, which many of us [they came before it was discontinued in July 2011] that we can work and recover the money before we go back home. It is very difficult for some TASMAC students who have rent their home in their own country and the money to pay to come here.

* Jag deep Singh SADAL and Sunset Patel enrolled in TASMAC MBA in London. They were talking with the University World News Asia Editor Yolanda Sharma.

* Sunset Patel is a pseudonym. The student did not use his name, but the University World News met with him, know his name and know he was a student at TASMAC.