Problems with the Laurea University of Applied Science's "education export" programme had driven Kenyan students into financial distress, reported the newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet (HBL).
The Kenyan students were supposed to arrive in Finland under a programme paid for by the Uasin Gishu provincial government in Kenya.
The province did not pay the costs,however, and now the students and their families have been asked to foot the bill.
Some of the families of the students interviewed by HBL had to take on debt or sell their assets to finance their studies in Finland.
According to the paper, some students have even resorted to prostitution, in addition to various jobs, to finance their studies.
Ambiguity over funding
According to HBL, the problems are related to the students who arrived from Uasin Gishu province, the vast majority of whom started their studies at Laurea last fall.
Yle reported last week that almost half of the nursing and physiotherapy students who arrived at Laurea from Uasin Gishu are at risk of losing their right to study, unless they or their families pay the costs to the province of Uasin Gishu.
Laurea made an agreement only with the Uasin Gishu provincial government, which in turn has agreed to handle payments with the students.
According to Suomen Kuvalehti, false information was also given to Laurea by the Uasin Gishu administration, for example that Uasin Gishu would pay the students' living expenses, although this did not happen.
Laurea cannot help with payments
Jouni Koski, President of Laurea University of Applied Sciences, told STT that the university's staff has supported the Kenyan students in many ways.
Koski claimed that the students were also informed about the costs of living in Finland before they arrived.
Under education export rules, students or their families should not pay tuition fees. Instead, a third-party purchaser should pay for the specially-designed programme.
There is no plan in place for any problems with those payments, and Laurea says it will not use its ordinary funding to support the students.
"The university knew from the beginning that the county would pay for the education. But in the early stages, the university received quite frankly false information from the county," Koski said.
However, cooperation between Laurea and Uasin Gishu province has improved since the change of political leadership in the province in last autumn's elections, according to Koski.
Since then, Koski said, the administration has provided reliable information.
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