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Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Nova in trouble again

Nova handed suspension order over tuition fee practices

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on Wednesday ordered major English-language school operator Nova Corp. to suspend part of its business operations for holding back money from students who canceled their contracts, ministry officials said.

The ministry issued an order prohibiting Nova from soliciting customers or accepting applications for contracts exceeding one year or new contracts exceeding 70 hours. The suspension will be in place for six months.

It is the first time for the ministry to issue a business suspension order to an English language school under Japan's special transaction law. People who are currently taking lessons at the language school will not be affected by the order.

Ministry officials explained Nova operates a system in which students buy points enabling them to take lessons. When they buy a large number of points in advance, they can take lessons at a cheaper price.

However, when people canceled their contracts before finishing their courses, the company lowered the amount of lesson fees it returned to them. In addition the company didn't inform people about the procedures for canceling contracts. (more)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nova is eeeeeeevil.