SINGAPORE, Sept. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS), one of Singapore's top private education providers and oldest not-for-profit professional institute, has filed a legal suit in the High Court of Singapore (Writ of Summons: S158/2011/B) against Edith Cowan University (ECU), Mr. Kerry Owen Cox, Vice Chancellor and President of ECU and Mr. Gensheng Shen, Dean of ECU International.
In the legal suit filed on 9 March 2011, MDIS is seeking damages for a number of claims which include the breach of the Education Agreement which was originally signed with ECU on March 12, 1999 and replaced with a new agreement on 9 November 2005; damages caused to MDIS as a result of several defamatory remarks made by ECU and the other defendants as well as compensation for all the losses MDIS has suffered as a result of all the defamatory remarks made and attempts made by ECU to encourage its students to leave MDIS to take up ECU courses with another private educational institution in Singapore.
In its affidavit, MDIS highlighted that ECU had not met its obligations for an acceptable teach-out agreement to be implemented within a reasonable time frame following the non-renewal of its Education Agreement with MDIS. Instead, ECU had intentionally caused losses to MDIS by attempting to encourage students to switch to another competitor - Singapore Manufacturers Association Institution of Higher Learning (SMa) to continue their ECU courses. The sudden decision by ECU not to renew its agreement with MDIS had caused confusion among the students who had enrolled into the ECU courses. The unexpected turn had disrupted their study plans as well.
In addition, ECU had made many defamatory remarks against MDIS by sending emails on its views of MDIS to students, Singapore's Council for Private Education (CPE) and the Australian Universities Quality Agency. These remarks had cast aspersions on MDIS and its leadership and hurt the strong reputation of MDIS.
The pre-trial conference for the legal suit was held on June 28, 2011 and the next court hearing is scheduled sometime this month.
Media Enquires and Contacts On behalf of MDIS:
Tham Moon Yee
Stratagem Consultants Pte Ltd
Email: tmy@stratagemconsultants.com
Lee Yew Meng
Stratagem Consultants Pte Ltd
Email: yewmeng@stratagemconsultants.com
Tel: +65-6227-0502
Fax: +65-6227-5663
