Dubai: As many as 62 students have been left in the lurch, for months now, after being caught up in a spat between an Indian university and its affiliated distance study centre based in Dubai.

The students who enrolled for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes offered by the University of Madras in India through the Campus Educational Institute, told Gulf News they were shocked to realise in July that they were being cheated.

"It all began when our exams scheduled for June 2010 got cancelled without any prior notice to the students," said Jahangir Akbar, who is employed as an engineer with a federal government entity.

"The institute told us that Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) had not given them permission to conduct undergraduate or postgraduate courses and exams on their premises."

Meanwhile, one of the students who was in Chennai on vacation at the time went to the university in person and found out that many of the students were not even registered with the university as per their official records.

Akbar enrolled for an MBA programme in 2008 and says he lost Dh16,000.

"There are other students who have lost up to Dh25,000," he added.

University dues

After being approached by the students, the Indian Consulate took up the issue only to find that the institute collected fees from students for the past four years but had not paid up the university its dues.

The university in turn refused to confer degree certificates to some students, did not allow them to sit for final exams, and withheld the results of some others. According to Indian media reports, the Campus Educational Institute owes more than Dh235,000 to the university in dues — by way of registration fees, tuition and exam fees.

Plight continues

The plight of the students continues as the issues between the institute and the university stands unresolved. Another appeal has been sent to the university by the consulate a few days ago, officials have said.

Jaideep P., consul for education at the Indian Consulate, said: "In July, the consulate was approached by the 62 students enrolled at Campus... We sent letters to the university and to the institute to sort out the matter amicably, without causing further inconvenience to the students."

Unclear: Campus' response

Nandan Balakrishnan, who runs Campus Educational Institute said that he is in India now trying to sort out the issue. "Data about some students were missing from our institute's records that led to the situation", he said.

"We are hoping to sort out the problem at the earliest, possibly within a week's time."

However, the students are still sceptical since many similar deadlines are long over.

Would you opt for a distance-learning course to boost your career growth? Do you know someone who enrolled for a distance-learning programme from the UAE? How was their experience?