GOB "terminates" Grace - mystery medical college!

[azskeptic]

://www.amandala.com.bz/is36/print341.html

Amandala.com.bz NEWS

GOB "terminates" Grace - mystery medical college!
by Anita Nembhard

Local education authorities this week put out a notice declaring that
a foreign–run school of medicine that had operated a campus out of
Belmopan since 2000 can no longer operate in the country.

However, it was only after the institution, Grace University School of
Medicine (GUSM), informed the Ministry of Education (MOE) this August
that it would no longer be operating in Belize, that GOB launched an
investigation into the institution's operations.

This week GOB announced in a press release on Monday, December 21,
2004: "The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Government of
Belize and Grace School of Medicine, made on the December 4, 2000, has
been terminated by the Government of Belize. This termination took
effect on December 17, 2004. With effect from the said date, the
school no longer exists in Belize. All parties concerned are advised
to take notice of this release."

On August 9 of this year, GUSM wrote a letter to GOB stating that it
would no longer be able to operate in Belize, because they are now
operating in Cambridge, London, said Marion McNab, Chief Education
Officer (CEO) in the Ministry of Education, in an interview with
Amandala on Tuesday, December 21.

McNab said that after the MOE received the letter, the Ministry
attempted to set up an appointment with officials from the GUSM, but
could not. After the failed attempt, the Ministry found out that the
institution had not been operating for at least one year.

She told us that the termination was because GUSM simply breached "all
clauses" [emphasis hers] within the MOU.

McNab, who would not provide Amandala with a copy of the MOU when we
requested it, offered to summarize the document. She gave two examples
of the alleged breaches: failure to deliver a program and failure to
provide scholarships for Belizeans to attend the institution.

She further noted that the government had given the GUSM a sixty-day
extension to remedy the MOU, which she said GUSM officials did not
contest. The sixty-day extension expired on December 17, said McNab,
and the GUSM still did not remedy the clauses. She said that this was
the grounds on which the government terminated its MOU with the
institution.

However, she did not clarify why it was that Government would ask the
university to fulfill its MOU, even after the institution had already
said that it would no longer be operating in Belize.

GUSM's vice president of operations, Sarah Louden, via an
international telephone interview with our newspaper from Boca Raton,
Florida, insisted, "We did not breach our contract."

But she declined to comment further, saying that she is awaiting a
response from the institution's attorney in Belize. She told us that
she would be making an official statement on the matter later.

In late August, 2003, when the university advertised Belize's National
Assembly as its "campus" on its website, this newspaper ran an
in-depth report on the school. (Please see the mid-week issue of
Amandala, dated Wednesday, August 27, 2003)

We had reported that even though the university was granted a legal
charter in Belize in 2000, officials within the MOE at that time were
unable to say who actually signed the charter. The Ministry of Health,
which should have also signed on the legal charter, said in August
2003 that they had not signed one for GUSM.

On Tuesday, December 21, 2004, Amandala spoke with a male who had
applied for a job with the GUSM in late 2002. He said that he spoke to
the GUSM's president, Silvanie Mathura, who told him that the school
only catered to international students. He estimated that at the time
of his application, there were about 15 to 18 students attending the
school, and these students, he said, were only taking theory courses,
and not doing any practical work.

When Amandala conducted its investigations in August 2003, only 2
students were attending the institution's Belmopan campus. The
newspaper learned then that these 2 students were paying over BZ
$200,000 for a four-year program.

On the GUSM's website (www.grace-usom.org), each applicant is required
to submit a non-refundable fee of US$100.

The newspaper also tried to contact the Director of the Financial
Intelligence Unit, Keith Arnold, to see if the institution is being
investigated for possible fraud, but our attempts were unsuccessful.

When we tried to get further clarification on the allegations
regarding GUSM's MOU, McNab said that she could not comment any
further, and all efforts to reach the Minister of Education, Hon.
******* Fonseca, were unsuccessful.

It is interesting to note that in the story published in 2003, it was
reported that England (Cambridge) and other countries had rejected the
GUSM; but according to the GUSM's website, the institution now has a
campus in London. It also continues to claim that the institution's
Belize campus is operational.