A Singaporean vocational school, located in Ho Chi Minh City, has been found continuing to recruit students for unauthorized international joint programs even though it has lost its business license for running such illicit courses.

The Singapore Informatics and Business Management Education Company (SIBME) Monday asked current enrollees to pay tuition and sign a new training contract under a different name, SIBME International Education Center (SIEC) managed by the Hanoi-based University of Technology and Management (UTM).

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs had earlier stripped SIBME of its license, demanding a halt to its operations, after discovering the school offering several illegal undergraduate programs in cooperation with foreign partners, while it was allowed to teach short-term vocational courses only.

Nguyen Sang, a UTM official, told enrollees that SIEC was founded upon approval from the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) and other competent government agencies.

He also said that the center has yet to submit a few necessary documents to the ministry for official registration.

It is completing the required paperwork to get a permit from Vietnam’s education authorities, according to Luu Hong Thuy, SIEC director.

It is expected to secure permission from the education ministry on January 15 to resume all the suspended international joint programs, Thuy said.

She added that this center acts as a foundation on which “a SIBME university” will soon be established.

Asked by a parent about degree conferment, the director said that the center’s international partners will send their degrees to Vietnam after students finish all the modules, even in the event SIEC had been closed down.

But Nguyen Xuan Vang, a ministry official, underscored that the center will never get a MoET nod.

Only higher learning institutions are allowed to run or join hands with international partners to offer undergraduate and graduate programs, Vang said, citing current regulations.

Two other Singaporean vocational schools, Melior Business School Vietnam and ERC Institute Vietnam, have also had their licenses withdrawn for teaching unapproved courses.