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"Hotel Schools" Cheat on Money
A private hotel school closed down and because of "financial difficulties" threw out all of its 15 Asian enrollees, three Thais and 12 Chinese, onto the streets in Lausanne, according to news reports of two largest French-language newspapers of Switzerland, 24 Heures and Le Matin, March 29.
Life has by itself shattered the 15 enrollees' "European dreams" after high tuition fees were exacted in Lausanne. Surfacing of the "Hotel School" fraud again told the way and how Swiss tricksters defrauding 15 young Asian dupes of their money were absolved.
School closed, threw the fooled outThat was how the so-called "International Institute for Hotel Business and Administration", IIHBA for short, known for its notoriety as a "Hotel School" in urban Lausanne, launched in 1999. Panosz, a Greek in Switzerland, officiated as president of the school, with a student body of 15, three Thais and 12 youngsters from China's mainland, at an age between 18-26.
Teaching schedule told the school's study period was to last one year, four months' theoretical study, four months' practice teaching and again four months' theoretical course taking. "We were only in the second month of doing 'fieldwork' in a hotel named B��rgenstock in Lucerne when the school authority suddenly faxed and told us to stop doing 'fieldwork' and get back to school immediately," Ms K from northeast China recalled.
The authoritative notice was that for the hotel, with the school housed in, hence the name "Hotel School", had got back on its training agreement with the school it had to stop practice teaching and arrange two months to teach French and a course on administration instead. Meanwhile, an excuse by the hotel was that the school had stopped payment of accommodation in the way those Asian youngsters had to get away from the hotel. What followed was naturally there was no promised administration course, nor French teaching. Though "teachers" appeared yet they seemed to have no pay and left, hence a complete stop to all "school teaching". The enrollees were finally told to pack up and find new hotels by themselves. "IIHBA has promised us training in hotel and now how can we find a hotel by ourselves since we know not a French word and go as strangers completely on our own?" said Ms K indignantly.
Not a week later, order was served for final removal of the dupes and check-in with the hotel before March was out. This meant that the 15 young Asian enrollees had to be thrown out of the "Hotel School" and take to streets when they could not find a new place to shelter themselves in during a time of two weeks.
Promise: only a heap of beautiful lies K didn't expect all these at all, who had been seeking a shortcut of going abroad to boost her career. Then a friend recommended IHBA to her, saying you don't need TOFEL and other examinations and it's easy to get a visa. It only needed one year to attain bachelor's degree and "it is exceedingly attractive before I knew it was cheat", said K. That was because all school documents were beautifully printed, with beautiful scenery and luxury hotels mounted to show no cheat.
After paying an agent fee of 200,000 yuan she descended on that beautiful country of Switzerland and thought her dream realized. But she soon found that the "hotel school" had merely a small student body of 15 put up in a rent block apartment and a teaching staff of only three. Diploma was not officially recognized.
With the passage of time, what the enrollees finally got was just a list of "tuition fees" they "owed" to the school. On April 12, the school declared bankruptcy and immediately had the protection of state laws in that country. But who would protect those of duped innocence soon to lose their rights of residency?
Temporary ease not lastHelp came in time of emergency, people should say. Though no silver lining ahead, they found a way out after odious suffering. Swiss Hotel Schools Association (ASEH), a non-governmental organization with 13 members including well-known Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne (Lausanne International Hotel Institute), lent their help after learning the IHBA affair and some members claim themselves victims since a few "black sheep" did their fullest part in ruining the country's image.
The 15 young Asians have now been accepted and registered by ASEH members. However, most of them have no capability to pay their tuition and have to squeeze some money out of their thin internship in hotels. But about the future, as K has put, they are not so optimistic,"the institute exempts my tuition for three months, but a sum to tide over six months is needed for the lowest certificate. That means at least another 10 thousand Swiss Francs is still short when there seems no other ways to be found out in the near future".
Schools to be regulatedThe matter has been swaged, but people, when speaking about "hotel schools", show no optimism over the status quo of Swiss hotel institutes, just like K worries about her future. Sham "hotel school" cases last year had surprised people in various walks of life in Switzerland.
Dr. Christian Rey, chairman of ASEH said like this: since tourism is a pillar industry of Switzerland, hotel management, as an important part, will by its quality directly affect the country's tourism and its world image.
Though a batch of measures have been under consideration in a bid to regain the once sound fame of Swiss hotel institutes, still it needs time to crack this tough nut as a new question to be tackled with. In the meantime, the country's education system has rendered different confederations to have their own right limits and made it nearly impossible to form a united supervisory management system, which unavoidably aggravates the difficulty to solve the aforesaid problem.
What's more, only 20, 000 Swiss Francs is demanded as registering capital to erect a hotel school and its tax will be collected as earnings of the tourism industry. So, tricksters under the name of hotel institutes are regarded not only as "black sheep" of tourism industry but also "money earners" of Switzerland. Isn't this outright sarcasm?
Question posedAs Switzerland tightens grip on its hotel institutes, should we do by ourselves some deep thinking about the country's "hotel" schooling? Why international cheaters eye the overseas study market of Chinese students and how could those clumsy crooks have succeeded in fooling those 15 young Asians? According to economic law, any market should be based on demand and the market prosperity should be backed, in this case, by those who are deceived and those of parents who place high hopes on their children and bigoted students pinning their hope on a study "career" abroad.
By PD Online staff member Li Heng
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