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Shafston in Australia faces liquidation

A private college chain in Australia faces liquidation after failing to pay AUS$234,972 in commission to an agency that recruited international students on its behalf.
October 20 2011
1 Min Read

A private college chain in Australia faces liquidation after failing to pay AUS$234,972 in commission to an agency that recruited international students on its behalf.

Shaftson, which has two campuses in Brisbane and one on the Gold Coast, is said to owe Sonya International Education Centre $2,196 for each of 107 international students placed at the college.

Sonya is pursuing the claims, which date back to 2009, through Brisbane’s supreme court this month, after the college ignored a statutory demand for the money in August. Shaftson will be placed into receivership if it does not oppose the application.

It is not the first time Shaftson has faced high profile legal battles. In 2004 founder and president, Keith Lloyd, was banned by the college board from entering his own campus after national broadcaster Channel Nine alleged he had paid students as young as 16 for sex.

In 2008, the college again made headlines over allegations that lecturers were being instructed to pass students on a vocational nursing course. The course was denied reregistration and closed, forcing some students to pay an extra $5-7,000 to complete their training through a Technical and Further Education Commission (TAFE) scheme.

Restrictions were also placed on the working activities of graduates of the course, sparking outrage from former students who had paid up to $16,000 for their tuition.

Shaftson claims to have enrolled 50,000 students since it was founded in 1996.

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