Bid to block firm using 'college' to win custom

Published on Monday 22 October 2007 12:11

HIGHER education chiefs have launched a legal bid to stop an Edinburgh business from calling itself a "college".

The Association of Scottish Colleges (ASC) claims the reputation of the sector in Scotland is being damaged by the institutions.

The International College Scotland, in St John's Road, Corstorphine, is the only one in Edinburgh with which the ASC has taken issue, although there are others across the country.

The colleges are not registered with the ASC, so they are not required to meet its standards of conduct, and there have been horror stories about the experiences of international students coming to this country to study.

Strathclyde Police has been investigating claims that the Kelvin Business School, in Glasgow, took fees of between 1000 and 6000 for courses that did not exist.

No such allegations exist against the International College Scotland, but the ASC is concerned that the title could prove misleading for people overseas who want to study in Edinburgh, and its lawyers have written a letter asking it to remove the word "college" from its title.

Neil Cuthbert, public affairs adviser at the ASC, said it was particularly concerned about the college's website.

"When you log on it looks perfectly reasonable," he said. "But if you go to the Academic Honesty section it talks about deans - we don't have deans in Scotland. It looks like they've copied and pasted this from a US website.

"Its refund policy says that in the event of courses being cancelled or if a place is withdrawn, refunds will not be paid if the offer was made on the basis of incorrect or incomplete information. That's a get-out clause for them."

He added: "Some institutions are sullying the good name of Scottish colleges."

Iain Dewar, the head of business at the International College Scotland, said lawyers had been instructed to respond to the ASC's letter.

"Our courses are accredited with the British Accreditation Council (BAC), and we are trying to get the college itself accredited with them as well," he said.

"Our hotel and catering management course operates from a classroom, but we're not teaching people how to cook or how to lay a table, we're teaching them about managing hotels." Asked about the "get-out clause" in the refund policy, he added: "We're talking about someone telling us they've got a qualification when they don't."

The ASC has written to all Scottish MPs, as well as Secretary of State for Scotland Des Browne and John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, asking them to use the Business Names Act to stop such institutions calling themselves colleges.

Howard McKenzie, ASC acting chief executive and principal of Jewel and Esk Valley College, said: "I am writing to all Scottish MPs asking them to consider an amendment to the Business Names Act 1985 to safeguard the title of 'college'.

"Secretary of State for Scotland Des Browne MP has informed ASC that the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform is currently reviewing the words and expressions that cannot be included in a company's name without prior consent.

"There is therefore a window of opportunity for the Government and MPs to address the issue."