PETALING JAYA, July 20 — A group of undergraduates claimed today their university misled them to believe that they were enrolled in a recognised degree programme even though its accreditation had recently been withdrawn.
The students from International University College of Technology Twintech (IUCTT) said they were signed on to a Bachelor of Optometry programme, which had its Malaysian Optical Council accreditation withdrawn recently.
They claimed that with the loss of accreditation, their four-year bachelor’s degree would only be equivalent to a diploma certificate, which would only qualify them to work at retail stores and not hospitals.
Ten students made their claims at a press conference organised by PJ Utara MP Tony Pua here, today.
They claimed that about 160 students were affected.
The Malaysian Optical Council had pulled its accreditation for the programme in June 2010.
Glasgow Caledonian University, which was supposed to be part of the twinning degree programme, also withdrew in January 2008, citing IUCTT’s failure to abide by some financial agreements.
“Earlier this year, lecturers had resigned and had joined another college,” Pua said.
“We find all the action taken by Twintech, at this point in time, unreasonable to the students and they have not clarified how they are going to resolve the situation,” Pua told reporters.
The students said they had a few meetings with representatives from Twintech and the Ministry of Higher Education to get their explanations on the withdrawals and to come up with a solution.
“[The students] were given various verbal assurances but there was no black and white given by anybody.
“None of them were able to secure any written guarantee from both parties,” Pua said.
Pua pledged to try to get an appointment with the Ministry of Higher Education to help these students resolve the problem.
Representatives from IUCTT could not be reached for comment.
The IUCTT is one of six institutions offering degrees in optometry. Among the other institutions are Universiti Teknologi Mara and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
The six-year-old institution also offers engineering, computing, architecture, accounting, business and biotech programmes, according to its website.
