1973–1996: Oxford
Warnborough College was founded in Oxford, England, in 1973, offering study abroad programmes and catering largely to American students spending a semester or year abroad as part of their academic programme. The college, which is not not affiliated with the University of Oxford, was founded by Brenden Tempest-Mogg, an Australian who had attended Hertford College of Oxford University in 1970. [1] [2] [3] Mogg's other offerings also included summer school programmes and a venue for summer conferences. [4] [5] It was founded on Warnborough Road in North Oxford; in 1976, it moved to Boars Hill, about four miles south from the city of Oxford. [1]
In 1985, Warnborough College began the Warnborough Australian Studies Programmes for studies in Sydney and Brisbane, Australia. [6] The nine American students who enrolled for the initial semester characterized the program as an "egregious academic dodge" in which they were misled as to their access to facilities at the University of Sydney and University of Queensland, and in which their lecturers were misled that the students were from Oxford University instead of American colleges. [7]
In the 1980s, Warnborough College began offering postgraduate programs. In 1987, BBC Radio broadcast a 25-minute long expose, revealing that Warnborough had no authority to issue degrees, and characterized Warnborough as a "nightmare" of low academic standards, inadequate teaching, high cost, and poor facilities and living conditions. In the aftermath of the BBC report, enrollment declined drastically, creating a financial crisis because Warnborough had taken out a $2 million high-interest loan, which could only be paid off by recruiting more students. In 1995, Warnborough decided to recruit graduating high-school students, holding itself out as a four-year college. [8] [9]
When the first class of American, Russian and Japanese 4-year students arrived in 1995, several American students alleged that Warnborough misled them into believing it was affiliated with Oxford University. [10] When students discovered that Warnborough had no connection with Oxford University roughly half the new enrolment immediately withdrew from the college, with some intending to sue for refunds. [10] [11] The college denied that it had claimed any association with Oxford University. [10] Those students who remained discovered that, because Warnborough was not accredited, the credits for their classes were not transferable. [8] [9] The Financial Times stated that all the students were "victims of an elaborate scam". [12]
Oxford University threatened Warnborough College with a lawsuit over these alleged misrepresentations, [11] and the Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board sued Warnborough. [13] [10] The lawsuit resulted in a judgement against Warnborough College by the Superior Court of King County, Washington of nearly $300,000. [14] Warnborough never paid the restitution ordered by the Court. [8] [9]
On 4 October 1995, the United States Department of Education took emergency action against [15] [16] and then, in 1996, terminated the eligibility of Warnborough College to participate in the federal student financial assistance programmes under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 on the basis that it was not a degree-granting foreign institution; its credits were not freely transferable to eligible US universities; and it had no eligible one-year vocational programmes. [16] It also fined the college $40,000 for failing to make refunds to students in accord with Title IV and for misrepresentations to students. [16]
By the following year, Warnborough College Oxford had closed and liquidated. [8] [9] Hertford College was reported to be pursuing legal action against Warnborough College to recover a property rental debt of 6,000 pounds. [17] Other creditors hired a private detective to track down the principals after they returned to Australia. [1] [18] [19] The Boars Hill properties were repossessed by creditors and its corporate owner was wound up in a petition by the Inland Revenue. [1] In 1996, Warnborough relocated temporarily to offices rented from the New Road Baptist Church in central Oxford. [1] The Tempest-Moggs returned to Australia in July 1996 and the New Road office closed in August 1996. [1] In October 1996, Warnborough went into liquidation. [18]
1997–2005: London and Canterbury
In 1997 Warnborough University was registered as a limited company in Ireland, directed by Brenden Tempest-Mogg and Kee Guan Ng, a Malaysian national [2] with a registered branch office in the United Kingdom. It initially operated an office in London and later moved to Canterbury in 2001. It offered graduate and undergraduate residential and non-residential degrees in liberal arts, scientific and professional studies. [20]
In November 2005 Ireland's Department of Education and Science said that Warnborough University in Ireland was in breach of the Universities Act 1997 by calling itself a university and requested that they not use the word "university". [21] Earlier in 2005, the inclusion of Warnborough and other unauthorized degree providers on a UK Department for Education and Skills (DFES) list of "genuine" education providers was described as an "embarrassment" to DFES. [22]
Warnborough College UK is located in Canterbury, Kent. When it was inspected in May 2012 by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) for Private Further Education, it was reported to have 59 students, of which the vast majority were foreign students on Tier 4 visas, principally from Asia, of which only four had English as their first language. [23]
