- Report: #1155188
Complaint Review: BCNH - UK College of Nutrition and Health - London
Reported By:
BCNH Unhappy Student -
Sheffield, Other,
Submitted:
Updated:
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Author Not Confirmed
Why?
BCNH - UK College of Nutrition and Health
Suite 17-18, Barkat House, 116 -118 Finchley Road, London, NW3 5HT United Kingdom
Phone:
+44 (0) 207 433 2555
Web:
www.bcnh.co.uk
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BCNH - UK College of Nutrition and Health BCNH Unhappy Student London United Kingdom
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During my BCNH diploma in Nutritional Therapy I dropped out, because I felt deceived by BCNH, due to concerns related to: 1) lack of transparency, 2) inadequate teaching methodologies, expertise and resources, 3) academically unrecognised, not validated and unaccredited institution and course certificate, and 4) financial related issues. To sum up, the course in general (including their teaching, attitudes towards students, recognition, etc…) was of no value for the high fees I was paying.
[To prove that I was a real student at BCNH I attached a learning of agreement copy signed by the principal- titled Document 1]
The following are REASONS which: 1) led me to quit the course, and 2) which BCNH will not tell you BEFORE you pay a chunk of money and sign several documents:
1) Unrecognised and not validated certification
BCNH is an academically unrecognised and an unaccredited institution and, therefore, its transcripts (which are type printed on a low cost A4 paper) are not academically recognised and validated (Contact British bodies for accreditation and recognition: [email protected]& [email protected]). Higher institutions did not recognise my BCNH transcripts. Furthermore, employers are not keen on hiring someone based on an academically ‘unofficial’ transcript. Moreover, all BCNH certificates are not recognised by the British Association for Nutrition ((+44) 20 7291 8378/ accreditation@associationfornutrition). It seems like BCNH uses the University of Greenwich name which, unlike BCNH, is a recognised University, to support their status claims and to sound like an official British/UK academic body.
AFTER spent a hefty sum of non-refundable money they started pushing me to ‘top-up’ my diploma (cost: £15,350 and £1,950) to a B.Sc (cost: £27,025 and £1,950), as 'craftily' they started ‘admitting’ that a B.Sc taught by the Uni of Greenwich and BCNH, where the degree transcript is issued by the Uni of Greenwich, is more recognised. In reality, BCNH’s actual multi £££ diplomas are academically unrecognised and not validated because the transcripts are issued by the academically unrecognised BCNH.
See attached document 2 for evidence (highlighted in red circles): is correspondence with a programme leader at the Uni of Greenwich stating that BCNH diplomas are not validated by the University of Greenwich.
2) As a fully qualified teacher myself I feel that BCNH’s teaching methods, expertise and resources are very poor
c. For my 1st essay I slightly exceeded the word limit and they graded my 1st essay 40% as a penalty. In here I believe that they wanted to give me a lesson to write fewer words in the future, so that they will correct less work.
d. They wanted me to write my essays in a way as I used to write at secondary school-that is how I felt.
a. Most of their speakers who delivered the lectures were not sequential and consistent in their teaching flow, in line with an order of representative and chronological slides, which does confuse students especially distance learners. On top of this, BCNH teaching technology equipment to aid in delivery was limited. Consequently, I could not figure out which slide they were referring to.
b. I could not ask questions to the lecturers. On another hand, module tutors seemed disturbed by my questions and constantly told me to read at home, perhaps they were not able to answer my questions because they were not as qualified as the lecturers. At the beginning of the course they asked us to buy a whole list of expensive books; obviously, book fees are an additional cost apart from the course fee (more than £700 along the course). Furthermore, BCNH online catalogue library is very small, and some of its articles are old.
b. I could not ask questions to the lecturers. On another hand, module tutors seemed disturbed by my questions and constantly told me to read at home, perhaps they were not able to answer my questions because they were not as qualified as the lecturers. At the beginning of the course they asked us to buy a whole list of expensive books; obviously, book fees are an additional cost apart from the course fee (more than £700 along the course). Furthermore, BCNH online catalogue library is very small, and some of its articles are old.
c. For my 1st essay I slightly exceeded the word limit and they graded my 1st essay 40% as a penalty. In here I believe that they wanted to give me a lesson to write fewer words in the future, so that they will correct less work.
d. They wanted me to write my essays in a way as I used to write at secondary school-that is how I felt.
e. Their exams were time consuming involving too much memorizing without reasoning.
e. Their exams were time consuming involving too much memorizing without reasoning.
3) Hidden Ambiguous Fees:
a. On their catalogue there was no indication that they charge £10 extra if paid by card (see attached doc 3 for evidence [highlighted in red circles]: it is correspondence with their administrator highlighting additional costs)
4) Further Financial related incidents:
a. AFTER paying a hefty sum of money and signing several documents they stopped being as nice and helpful as before, and at times my emails were not answered.
One of the many examples:
Once I wanted to buy a book from a non-associated BCNH book store (an online book store selling cheaper books than the one linked to and referred by BCNH), and asked the course leader for book verification. As a result, her answer was: ‘’ the reading list is quite clear…we would expect you to figure out the answer for yourself’’. See doc 4 as evidence (follow arrows).
Once I wanted to buy a book from a non-associated BCNH book store (an online book store selling cheaper books than the one linked to and referred by BCNH), and asked the course leader for book verification. As a result, her answer was: ‘’ the reading list is quite clear…we would expect you to figure out the answer for yourself’’. See doc 4 as evidence (follow arrows).
b. When it came to payment they were extremely nice (and perhaps unprofessional)! See attached doc 5 as evidence it is correspondence with their admin.
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2 Updates & Rebuttals
Student response to Breda ( BCNH )
#2Author of original report
Sat, October 01, 2016
Hi Breda, it s been a long time.
1. By that time I was at your course, I was a distance learning student. I was only provided with audio recordings and slides which was very difficult to follow as I times I did not know to which slide the audio recordings were referring to, and when I email my tutors questions they always told me to read several books which I purchased out of my expenses (books were very expensive as well). I felt that technology was not up to standard to provide me with suitable learning, for the heavy lump sum of money I was paying
2. You said that I spent 2 years studying at your college ( BCNH ). I did 1 year foundation which was not the actual course as this was basic chemistry and Biology as an entry for the actual course. Then I spent another year following the actual course. Therefore, I quit after the 1st year of doing the actual course.
3 You said that the BCNH diploma is credit rated by the Uni of Greenwich. When I showed my BCNH transcripts to universities so that maybe I can transfer the credits I earned from your college, they told me that the credits are not recognised. Trust me, I applied to various British universities and they all did not recognise any of the credits I earned at your course. When I flew to London to your college to talk to you said that they are recognised. What does this mean?
In light of this, I do not believe that your college was well equipped at that time to provide me with good education, especially when I had to fork out a lot, a lot and a lot of money for it. Having said that, I do not wish to argue with you or keep you as an enemy for voicing my experiences because it is not healthy. I am just saying that all the energy, time and money I invested doing your course was not yielding any prospects.
After quitting your course I did 2 masters mainly as a distance learner at British universities and I was successful, and had good learning experiences, unlike the course I was following at BCNH, your institution. God bless.
Breda Gajsek
London,Alabama,
United Kingdom
Incorrect Information & Malicous attack
#3REBUTTAL Owner of company
Fri, September 30, 2016
Please note that this individual claims that that he was initially mislead about our courses being validated by the University of Greenwich are totally false. Our courses have been credit-rated by the University of Greenwich since 2005 and we continue to enjoy this academic partnership with the University.
This individual also signed a Learning Agreement confirming that he has read the BCNH Prospectus, which among other information, clearly states that our courses are credit-rated by the University of Greenwich. This was also explained to him during the interview.
This individual contacted me on 19th of May 2014 demanding a partial reimbursement for the fees he had paid in the academic year 2012-13. I explained to him that he had received the services he had paid for and therefore no reimbursement was due. He then tried to press for a reimbursement by threatening to leave negative reviews – quotation below:-
“I forgot to tell you that my personal opinion and experience will be published online on various sources. Since I paid for the service I have a right to comment about my experiences so that others will make informed decisions. Considering that feedback is 'precious', perhaps even the college may also benefit from reading my feedback online”.
This individual did indeed leave several negative reviews on various websites and social media platforms, however in many cases these reviews were very quickly negated by an overwhelming response from our current students praising the services they receive.
I find it interesting that this individual stayed with the college for 2 years, while he claims that the service was not suitable for distance learners (the majority of our students are distance learners and doing very well on the course). If he found the course unsuitable I would have thought that he would have resigned from the course at an early stage.
This individual appears to think that he can damage someone's reputation in a public forum, assuming immunity from lawsuits. However, we will ourselves pursue legal action if his actions continue.
I wish to add that recent background search flagged up some interesting information about him, including his habit of blackmailing people or institutions:
complaints.com/2014-05-28/education/bcnh-british-college-of-nutritional-health/london-europe-nw3-5ht-uk/bcnh-my-bad-experiences-and-no-value-for-the-exagerated-paid-fees/1001401285289080791.html
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