Fate of 1500 state students hangs in air in US

 

University of Northern Virginia, UNVA Shut Down, UNVA Closed, University of Northern Virginia, University of Northern Virginia  Closed

 

 

Around 1500 students hails from AP and several hundreds from other states in the country find themselves struck with the closure orders of The University of North Virginia, USA.

 

On Tuesday, the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia has revoked the license of the university for failing to gain accreditation. The students may be given refund of their fee paid to the university, but they are unlikely get admissions in any other universities as their university lacks the accreditation.



The university has lost its accreditation with the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools in year 2008 due non compliance of records and procedures. Then a legal battle kicked off by Daniel Ho, who claims ownership over the university with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program, but lost.



Then the university has requested the concerned authorities to let it run the business, while it efforts to retain its Accreditation. But, when it fails by December 2010, the council audited the records and again found several deficiencies.



Then, the ICE agents have raided the university in year 2011 and seized its records for an investigation regarding foreign students studying in the university on an F1 visa. ICE found that the school’s records were not sufficient.



In the mean time, the concerned authorities have served several warnings to the university management raising objections over the irregularities taking place regarding Accreditation, records maintenance, violating the Visa norms and several issues, but the university fails to meet the requirements. So, the last nail on the coffin was hammered on Tuesday by the State Council for Higher Education, which ordered for the closure of the university.



Sylvia Rosa-Casanova, the director of SCHEV for private and out-of-state postsecondary education has said that the university was asked to refund the tuition fee paid by the students by tapping into a $915,380 deposit the council required of the school.



“Until we know the exact number of students and the type of students attending we don’t know what happens step by step. The school is also required to store student records and provide transcripts for those seeking to transfer. The impact on students is unknown at this point. Because it’s unaccredited we don’t know that any institution would accept these students,” Rosa-Casanova said.



This leaves around thousands of students studying in the university, who hails from India and from several other countries in a tragic state. The Telugu Associations in US are planning to extend all possible help to the state students.