VietNamNet Bridge – The HCM City People's Committee on Wednesday ordered relevant authorities to safeguard the interests of students left in the lurch by the sudden closure of the Singapore-owned Melior Business School last week.

Singapore business schools to be closed

It asked the Immigration Department not to allow Cheng Sim Kok, the legal representative of Melior, to leave the country until the issue is resolved.

On Monday hundreds of students and their parents gathered at the school at 97 Nguyen Van Troi Street to meet school representatives after being informed about its sudden closure.

They told the media that just a few days earlier the school had asked them to pay tuition fees for the illegal courses it was offering, and many had paid up to US$10,500.

The Ministry of Education and Training has since cancelled the licence of not only Melior but also two other Singapore schools – the ERC Institute and the Singapore Informatics & Business Management Education Ltd. — found to be offering unauthorised courses.

The Singapore consulate general, in a statement sent to Viet Nam News on Thursday on the closure of the school, said educational institutions like Melior that are set up in Viet Nam are subject to and expected to be in compliance with Vietnamese laws, as their operating licences were issued by Vietnamese authorities.

"Should they be in breach of Vietnamese regulations, they are liable for actions to be taken against them by the Vietnamese authorities."

Such private education institutions are not operated, owned, or managed by any Singapore Government agency, nor are they linked to the Singapore Consulate General in HCM City or the Singapore Embassy in Ha Noi, it said.

The Singapore Consulate General is thus not privy to details of their operations, nor is it in a position to take any mitigative actions against or on behalf of these independent entities, it said.

"For private education institutions set up in Singapore, they are regulated by the Council for Private Education (CPE) in Singapore and subject to regulatory standards, to better assure the quality of education and the protection of students pursuing their studies at these institutions in Singapore. However, CPE's regulatory jurisdiction does not extend beyond Singapore."

VietNamNet/VNS