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Major English school operator Geos goes bankrupt
Major English school operator Geos Corp. filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday at the Tokyo District Court with liabilities of about 7.5 billion yen, company officials said. Tokyo-based Geos operated 329 schools that had approximately 36,800 students. Nagoya-based G.Communication Group is set to take over 230 of the schools with some 29,000 students, while 99 other…
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Chinese students cautioned after GEOS English schools in Australia collapse
China’s Education Ministry on Sunday warned students considering studying overseas against Australian schools run by the GEOS group after more than 40 Chinese students were left stranded with the group’s collapse. More than 2,300 students in GEOS group schools across Australia were affected after the college closures. The schools were scattered across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane,…
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English school ordered to close / Court warned Fortress Japan last year over coercive sales practices
The Consumer Affairs Agency and the Tokyo metropolitan government on Thursday ordered a Tokyo-based English-language conversation school chain operator to suspend operations due to its coercive method of selling its services to university students and others. Fortress Japan talked customers into signing contracts for the purchase of English-learning programs, often telling students, “You’ll never be…
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College collapse angers overseas students
Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology deputy chief executive Elaine Bensted said the State Government’s priority was the students and ensuring they could continue their study in Adelaide. Meanwhile, a former director of GEOS Adelaide said the company acted as cash cow for the Japanese parent company. Gary Maserow, who resigned in October,…
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Uncertainty over language schools’ fate
The fate of up to 400 language students hangs in the balance with reports that their schools’ parent company has closed its Australian schools. This week, eight Australian schools owned by GEOS in Japan closed but the fate of the company’s schools in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch remained uncertain, GEOS Auckland manager Stuart Binnie said.…
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English language schools under threat of closure
The Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) says it will protect the 2,300 students affected by the possible closure of a number of English language schools across Australia. Nine companies associated with GEOS, which operates the schools in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, and Brisbane, went into voluntary administration late last week. The authority discovered that…
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Eight English schools won’t reopen: E&Y
The voluntary administrators of eight English language schools say that the schools will not reopen because of the financial situation. Justin Walsh and Adam Nikitins of Ernst & Young say they are working with the federal department of education and state government departments to find arrangements for the 2300 international students. The administrators were continuing…
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Collapsed GEOS language schools will not re-open as debts hit $10 million
Eight collapsed language schools owned by the Japanese-based GEO Group will remain shut, leaving the places of 2,300 students up in the air and 390 employees out of work. Administrators Justin Walsh and Adam Nikitins of Ernst & Young said in a brief statement released yesterday that the financial position of the schools, which were…
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Collapsed college owes students $10m
THE collapsed GEOS English language college network was permanently shut yesterday after administrators discovered the Japanese owners had left it with no money to keep going. Students and staff are owed more than $10 million in pre-paid fees and entitlements. Worst-hit are about 1000 students who had paid GEOS for homestay accommodation and who could…
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Big gap as Coast’s language school shuts
MORE than 250 foreign students receiving tuition on the Gold Coast have been left without a school and, for some, a place to live after their English language school was closed suddenly yesterday. Eight schools operated in Australia by the GEOS group, including one in Surfers Paradise, shut their doors in the afternoon after receivers…