<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Fake degrees: Case must explain its inability to help
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->THE issue of private schools peddling fake degrees must be addressed immediately. I am alarmed by the report "Fake-degree school told to close" (July 15), which mentioned that the Edutrust Bill will be tabled in Parliament only at the end of the year.
This issue of fake degrees is nothing new. There have been reports of such scams in the past. One would have expected the relevant authorities to act quickly before more students, local and foreign, became victims of such scams.
Meanwhile, the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) is increasingly getting linked to the wrong end of such issues and I wonder if confidence in the association as a trusted and reliable accreditation agency is suffering immeasurably.
It breaks my heart to discover that affected students have been turned away by Case because it could not help them to get their refunds. Local students were not aware that they could buy insurance. Why in the first place is there a distinction between a foreign student and a local student with regard to buying insurance upon registration?
To whom can students turn to verify if a school's degree offer is genuine? What does one normally do when one checks out the credentials of a school? These students are now left in the lurch.
Case must explain itself.
Peter Koh Kim Eng
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->THE issue of private schools peddling fake degrees must be addressed immediately. I am alarmed by the report "Fake-degree school told to close" (July 15), which mentioned that the Edutrust Bill will be tabled in Parliament only at the end of the year.
This issue of fake degrees is nothing new. There have been reports of such scams in the past. One would have expected the relevant authorities to act quickly before more students, local and foreign, became victims of such scams.
Meanwhile, the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) is increasingly getting linked to the wrong end of such issues and I wonder if confidence in the association as a trusted and reliable accreditation agency is suffering immeasurably.
It breaks my heart to discover that affected students have been turned away by Case because it could not help them to get their refunds. Local students were not aware that they could buy insurance. Why in the first place is there a distinction between a foreign student and a local student with regard to buying insurance upon registration?
To whom can students turn to verify if a school's degree offer is genuine? What does one normally do when one checks out the credentials of a school? These students are now left in the lurch.
Case must explain itself.
Peter Koh Kim Eng
