College's degree is fake, foreign student finds She spent $50,000 of her family's savings, then learned Kingston College was a scam
Robert Matas

October 31, 2006
Globe and Mail

Deepthi Aravapally is deeply embarrassed. Her father in India gave her $50,000 from the family's savings to send her to Canada to earn a master of science degree in computer information systems at Kingston College, a private postsecondary school in British Columbia.

But the school turned out to be a scam. The Private Career Training Institutions Agency, which monitors private schools in British Columbia, earlier this month ordered the college to close down after finding that the institution misled students, offering university degrees without authority to grant them.

Ms. Aravapally was among a group of foreign students from Kingston College who held a news conference yesterday to make a public appeal for help from the provincial government. They asked for a full refund or for assistance in having their credentials accepted by other postsecondary institutions.

They were joined by several immigrant students who paid tuition to other private schools that subsequently closed their doors. Student Tibor Hao said the government expected them to repay all student loans and grants.

"I'm afraid to tell him. I cannot even imagine what he is going to say about this. He spent all his savings on me. I don't know how he is going to respond," she said, her voice cracking.

She speaks every week with her father, who is a bank manager in the Indian city of Hyderabad.

"Every week, I keep saying, I'll be coming back. I keep saying, I will be coming home with my big degree and build my career and will repay him. But now everything is off," she said.

Ms. Aravapally said she had never been to Canada before deciding to further her education in British Columbia.

"Before I came to Canada, I thought . . . education was of such good quality here," she said. "Indian education is also very good, too, and the wages are good. But I thought when I return to my own country afterwards, I could build my career."

She began at Kingston College in September, 2003, after earning a bachelors degree in India. She had seen an advertisement for the private postsecondary institution in a local Indian newspaper.

The B.C. school claimed to offer a degree from the American University in London.

She completed the required course work and a thesis by this spring. Tuition was $15,000, and her living expenses over the three years were about $36,000. But she did not receive her degree.

She said she phoned several times to find out what happened and was told she had to wait. She decided to bypass the B.C. college and tried to get in touch with the London university. It took her four months before she received a response. "Finally I got a degree, but it was a fake degree," she said.

The college's duplicity cost her a job in the United States, she said. She had a job offer from a company in New Jersey. She was expecting to receive a U.S. working visa after she received her degree. But after Kingston College was ordered to close, the U.S. consulate in Vancouver advised her that the visa would not be issued.

Her visa in Canada expires at the end of December. She does not know what she will do at that time.

NDP critic Rob Fleming said the provincial government should step in to ensure that the province's international reputation is not tainted by the shoddy practices of some businesses.

Deregulation of private postsecondary education by the current government has failed, putting thousands of students at risk, he told reporters. The government has 15 outstanding audits of private schools for financial irregularities, he said. "Their ideological-based regulation project saw important financial protections for private college students carelessly stripped away," Mr. Fleming said.

Advanced Education Minister Murray Coell said later the students could go to small claims court to get their money back. Deregulation has led to improvements in the system, he said.

The self-regulation framework was set up to find private institutions that were not functioning properly and close them down, Mr. Coell said. Several schools that were not doing what they were supposed to be doing have been closed.

Mr. Coell dismissed the suggestion that the province's reputation was being tainted.

More audits of institutions are being done than ever before and closings are being imposed where necessary, he said. "And that in the long run will enhance the reputation of the private-sector institutions in B.C."