A business school with campuses in Auckland and Christchurch, in New Zealand that catered mainly to students from India has lost its registration.
Linguis International Institute (PTE) has been shut down after New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) ‘’ in relation to educational performance and compliance with its rules.
The audit carried out by NZQA concluded that the authority was not confident in Linguis’ educational performance.
reports the authority's most recent audit of Linguis, dated November last year, was based on NZQA visits to the institute in 2015 and described problems with marking, students' poor English-language skills and widespread evidence of high rates of plagiarism.
"The scale of this plagiarism brings into question the reliability of the reported figures on educational achievement, and the processes leading to them.
"Some Linguis academic staff seemed unclear about what constitutes plagiarism, which in itself is likely to limit Linguis' ability to resolve the problem fully and satisfactorily."
NZQA deputy chief executive Dr Grant Klinkum told , “As a result, NZQA has cancelled the registration of Linguis as a private training establishment. NZQA's first priority is to support current students to transfer into high performing alternative providers.”
Linguis International saw a rapid growth in number of students from 158 students in 2012 to about 1000 at the time of review in 2015. However, today the number has gone down to 81 students out of which 53 students are from India.
Linguis is 'extremely disappointed': Director Mike Dawson
Linguis director Mike Dawson told that Linguis was ‘extremely disappointed with the way in which this matter has been dealt with’.
"It is also especially shocking given Linguis and NZQA were scheduled to conduct Linguis' external evaluation and review at the same time as it made the decision to deregister.
"Had the review gone ahead as agreed with Linguis and as provided by law, it would have confirmed the true current state of Linguis' educational performance in a process designed specifically to do just that with a full array of checks and balances.
"Linguis can only speculate that there was concern that we may have come through the review process without justification for deregistration."
But NZQA’s Klinkum said they followed all the standard procedures.
"Linguis made three written responses and one verbal response on the deregistration," he said.
ARE YOU AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT AFFECTED BY THIS?
Students affected by this outcome can contact NZQA on linguis.students@nzqa.govt.nz or 0800 697 296.
NZQA is working to transfer students to high quality tertiary education organisations who will provide a full package of learning and support. We have contacted students with information about what has happened and how they can continue their studies, NZQA wrote on its .
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