A former teacher at Sydney’s Unique International College has told the court that she never heard from any of the 80 students she was assigned to teach.
The college and its owner, Amarjit Singh, faced the Federal Court in the first of a series of trials as the ACCC pursues them for $57 million in federal funding after they were accused of unconscionable conduct in recruiting disabled, illiterate students from Aboriginal missions by promising free laptops.
Penny Martin, the court heard, sent emails to her 80 online students who were enrolled in Diploma of Salon Management courses. She did not receive any replies. 40 of her emails bounced back from non-existent email addresses.
Source: Fairfax Media
When she spoke to the college owner, Amarjit Singh, he allegedly told her the college was facing financial difficulties, Fairfax Media reported.
He also confided in Ms martin that he wanted to write a script or a Bollywood movie. Amarjit Singh denied speaking with Ms. Martin about the college finances while he faced the court on Wednesday.
The college’s course co-ordinator, in a response to Ms. Martin’s email said: “Anyways don’t worry about failure notices, you keep sending emails to students.”
Court documents reveal that of the 440 students who enrolled in online courses at the college, 306 never logged on to the portal.
Representing Mr. Singh, David Pritchard, SC, said that the college was going through a transition and new system was being put in place to enable students to communicate directly with the college without having to go through a teacher.
"There was a fundamental change in the way the company deals with students. The successful implementation meant there would be less supervisors needed at Unique. Bounce-backs were a part of a teething process."
Mr. Singh also denied the allegations by Norman O'Bryan, SC, representing Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, that he pursued the exponential growth of the college "in order to maximise profitability for him and his family."
Unique and Mr. Singh said the college was operating a legitimate business.
