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Deeply Concerned about Partners Education - Scam College

Hi all,

Wasn't sure where to post this as the topic is a little mixed. So I posted it here, and hopefully others can chime in and offer some advice.

My partner recently enrolled on a course with the London School of Business and Finance in Birmingham. She has no qualifications, and hasn't worked due to being a single parent from a previous relationship. She wanted to do something with her life, and after her friend got onto the same course in September 2013 it spurred her to enrol for January 2014.

All good. I was well pleased for her. But then I started to notice some inconstancies. Firstly my girlfriend hasn't worked, and she has no qualifications as stated above, but the college didn't even take that into consideration. They didn't ask her why she wanted to study, they just got her to fill in the forms, and got her on the course. I thought this was very odd. When I went to college and university I had to have interviews.

The processes for getting students enrolled was very odd. But I overlooked it.

Then I started to research them online and started seeing a lot of bad feedback. Lots of scam/rip-off reports. A lot of people on here have complained about the London School of Business and Finance.

I've also only just seen the ITV Exposure programme they aired that featured the exact college my girlfriend has enrolled on. At the same college there were fights, bad attitudes all around. I do not want to sound stereotypical here, but there appears to be a lot of black gangs at the college. The video showed this, and shows fights. Staff also get threatened by them. My girlfriend is very timid, and respectful, and being around this gives me the creeps.

She was due to start tomorrow, but her student finance has been refused. When she called up this morning they told her they have pulled the Student Finance support from LSBF. She emailed the lady at the college and the lady told her to go into the college to complete a PN1. She's already completed a PN1 last week, and she done one online 2 months ago. No idea what the college is talking about here.

Whilst I'm sitting here concerned she is wasting time and money with this college, she's all excited. Well, at least she was until Student Finance told her they will not fund her.

I am trying to explain to her that LSBF is a shambles, and she would be far better going to college to do a 1 year access course, and progress to a real university from there. But, she's adamant that she really wants to do this course.

What can you do if someone won't take the advice? And why is this college still allowed to function!

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 1

cascadingstylez

She had an email today from the college telling her she's on the approved list, so Student Finance will fund the course, but she needs to go in to fill in some different forms.

I was under the impression that the only forms she needs for Student Finance is a PN1, which she's completed and she's had it all signed off by a solicitor etc. Student finance said they're not funding that college, so I do not understand.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 2

beckaroo7

Maybe ask her to email certain unis she's interested in applying to weather they accept the qualification at the college. If they say no, then this should hopefully lead to to an access course. Hopefully this is a real course and all will go well for her.

If she has no qualifications, will she cope at uni? Depends on the reasons she doesn't have them of course

Reply 3

Viva Emptiness

Not a great start to your Business and Finance career wasting all your money on a sham course. No offence but if she's dumb enough to still go on the course after seeing all that evidence...well, I don't want to finish that sentence because you seem nice, but you get my drift.

Reply 4

cascadingstylez

Original post by Viva Emptiness

I agree! She hasn't actually paid any money, it would have been through Student Finance if they had accepted to fund her. Fortunately they have said they are no longer funding this course. If they'd accepted to fund her then yeah that would have been a lot of wasted money, and spending 2 years at a crappy college would mean a 3 year degree afterwards being funding through SLC would be out of the question.

The college is still sending bloody emails asking her to come in to fill in some different forms :s-smilie: