MDIS and Edith Cowan University settle out of court

MDIS and Edith Cowan University settle out of court

SINGAPORE - A three-year lawsuit between the Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) and Australia's Edith Cowan University (ECU) ended last week with the parties agreeing to an out-of-court settlement.

MDIS had claimed that senior staff at ECU encouraged its students to study with a rival institution.

It also said the Perth-based university defamed it in e-mail messages.

ECU terminated a 12-year tie-up between the two institutions in 2010, raising questions over what would happen to the students enrolled in ECU degree courses run by MDIS.

In an e-mail, ECU told the 800-plus affected students they would get a full refund if they opted to leave their respective courses. If all the students had taken that option, MDIS could lose more than $2 million.

TAKEN TO COURT

In March 2011, MDIS took ECU, its vice-chancellor and the dean of ECU International to court.

For nearly three years, they battled over whether ECU had conspired to hurt MDIS' business and defame the local institution.

An MDIS statement, which was issued last Thursday, said ECU and its two senior staff members had retracted the disputed statements that were allegedly defamatory.

MDIS secretary-general Dr R. Theyvendran said: "We are pleased with the settlement and have therefore withdrawn the lawsuit against all the defendants.

"Having put this sorry episode behind us, we will continue to build on MDIS' strong and longstanding reputation and branding to provide the best quality education for our students."


This article was first published on June 3, 2014.
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