Last month, Mansfield Group announced the securing of a six and a half year contract with the Ministry of Higher Education, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (MOHE) to tutor Saudi students in English. 750 Saudi students were to arrive at Citywest Institute in April 2010 as part of MOHE’s King Abdullah Scholarship programme, which would cover the cost of their tuition fees and accommodation. 

However, in a statement that appeared on the Saudi Ministry's website last week, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education for Scholarship Dr Abdullah Al Mosa denied the existence of any contract.

“The claim that 750 students are going to study English at Mansfield Group’s Citywest institute is far from real,” he said.

He pointed out that the Mansfield Institute is not accredited by the ministry and the ministry does not have a contract with the Mansfield Group.

Meanwhile, County of Dublin VEC – subcontracted by Citywest Institute to deliver English courses to the overseas students – is not commenting on the situation. The recruitment process has been started even though no contracts have yet been signed. (Source: Irish Times)

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