Hey Guys,
I was a student at one of the SMU Distance Education centres located in Punjab. I had completed my 3 years course of BACHELORS OF COMMERCE from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2015, while after a lot of hard work, had been awarded with a degree securing B Grade.
As now I want to pursue my future working in Canada and for that I had sent my credentials to IQAS for the necessary educational assessment. It has been almost 6 months now that I have not received any conclusive report from them and upon being asked they have replied as follows:
"We have reasonable grounds to believe that your credential is not recognized based on research we have conducted so far. The Bachelor of Commerce at Sikkim Manipal University was not listed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) as an approved program, based on the time at which you attended. Only specialized programs are listed. As a matter of procedural fairness, we have contacted the UGC directly to verify our research, prior to concluding your application. To date, they have not responded. We are not able to complete the assessment until we receive a conclusive response from the UGC"
After researching on the matter, I got to know about Sikkim High Court order stating that students whose degrees will be ‘protected’ include those:
1. who had completed their course before 2011-12
2. others who had started their programme prior to 2011-12
3. those admitted for the programmes any day after February 22, 2013, till June 26, 2015
Acknowledging this, I was forced to believe that my degree is not valid as I had started my B.Com programme in year 2012.
But upon calling Sikkim Manipal University toll free number and asking them the same, they in response are saying that under these court orders my degree is valid and protected, and under no circumstances I should be facing any problem from getting a positive ECA.
My questions for the sake of clarification are:
1. Is my research on this valid or not? or Am I protected with my degree under the law?
2. What should I be doing in such situation to get a positive ECA from IQAS?
3. Is there any other SMU B.Com student from year 2012 who is facing the issue? has the solution?
Your valuable feedback can really save my future from getting jeopardised.
Thank you