CUT last month enrolled 26 students for its Post-Graduate Diploma in Corporate Strategy Management (PGDCSM), but terminated the contract two days after commencing classes much to the dismay of the students.
The students now accuse CUT of using them in a fundraising gimmick. “We all paid a compulsory registration fee of US$20 and some also paid full tuition fees of US$650 while others part-paid the fees as the institution allows this,” one of the affected students said.
“We were happy to be told our applications had been successful. But on the third day of attending classes, we were told that the institution was now going to award us with a diploma on completion of the studies and not a post-graduate diploma as advertised, the reason being that we do not qualify for the latter.”
Although CUT refunded the students, they claimed to have been greatly inconvenienced, as they had to prioritise the programme from the stage of applying to attending class. Some of the students said they had turned down employment elsewhere to pursue the programme. CUT spokesperson Musekiwa Tapera said it was an advertising error.
“It is true we advertised and accepted students for the post-graduate diploma, but a fundamental error we made was our failure to specify that applicants should be holders of non-business degrees,” Tapera said.
“On realising this error, the CUT Senate, which is our academic authority, moved in quickly to rectify the situation for the good and integrity of both the programme and the university.”
He said the university apologised to all those affected.
