Texila American University clears the air on student deportation

Sep 20, 2012 News

Texila American University (TAU) has said that it was justified in seeking to withdraw the visa of an Indian student and having him deported to India.
Ragavendra Balakrishnan recently claimed that he was given no explanation why he was picked up by Immigration authorities, since he was in Guyana on a valid student visa.
However, officials of the private university, located in Woolford Avenue, Georgetown, disputed his claim.
Texila University has been in Guyana for two years and currently has over 100 students of ten nationalities studying here.
Saju Bhaskar, the chief executive of Texila, said that the University sponsors visas for every international student, and it forms part of its obligation to keep Immigration Authorities informed when students are entering or leaving the university.
As a result, Bhaskar said when Balakrishnan gave up studies at the university; sponsorship of his visa was withdrawn by Texila.
The University officials claimed that Balakrishnan had put in writing that he was no longer a student of the university.
The university also claimed that the student packed his bags and left with the immigration authorities and was not “taken.”
Bhaskar and other university officials claimed that Balakrishnan was insistent that his degree in homeopathy could be grounds under which he could skip the first two years of the medical programme and be fast-tracked for clinical rotation in the USA.
However, the university said that it did not accede to the request, saying that a person has to be eligible before they could be posted for clinical rotation. The student must complete the first two years of the programme. Clinical rotation is for third and fourth year students.
The university said that Balakrishnan was failing his anatomy classes. He then complained that he was not aware of the passing grade. His next step was to seek to have his failing grades adjusted, something the University said that it could not do.
The University said that all indications are that Balakrishnan was more interested in entering the United States and that the university was not into facilitating illegal activities.
The University claimed that the student was trying to practice homeopathy in Guyana, and was trying to use the university to get him that permission to work here.
Bhaskar said that the university made a conscious decision to come to Guyana after looking at the fact that the rest of the Caribbean has over 38 private medical schools.
The University offers a 50 per cent scholarship to all Guyanese students.
Bhaskar acknowledged that the University has problems, but these are associated with the fact that it is a growing university with a diverse student population.
Bhaskar said that by October the University would have students from 15 different countries and that the student population could grow to 300 when facilities are expanded to a second campus at Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara.
According to Texila, some students have indeed left the University. Bhaskar said that these were mainly Indian students who did not realise the kind of country that Guyana is and expected to be in a country that was more developed.
He said that the university never sought the deportation of any. The only person whom the university caused to be deported was a dishonest lecturer.
In addition, the university said that the Medical Council in Indian has taken time to issue eligibility certificate and those students who left sought to defame Texila and pull students away.

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Texila American University clears the air on student deportation

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