This week Sydney College of English was forced out of business due to the devastating impact of COVID-19.
A pop-up on the college’s website delivers the sad news:
Dear SCE Students and Guardians,
We thank you for your support and your contribution to our community. It has been our pleasure to teach a great number of students from all around the world over the many years that we have been operating as an ELICOS provider.
We regret to inform you that the impact of COVID-19 on the ELICOS industry in Australia has led to the decision to permanently close SCE. This was a very difficult decision, but we are pleased to announce that all current students will be able to transfer to International House Sydney to continue in their enrolled course of study after SCE finishes delivering lessons on Friday 29th May 2020.
Please check you emails for more information.
The English college was established in 1987 and is one of the longest-running independently owned English language colleges in Sydney.
Universities, colleges and schools around the world are struggling to cope with the impact of COVID-19. Many are fighting for survival. Some won’t win that fight.
With so much bad news around now each institution closure quickly gets lost in the grim and never ending live feed of cases, curves, numbers and victims. Of course each one is really about people – their dreams, their careers, and their own personal struggle to cope.
The human element of the SCE closure was poignantly set out in a Linkedin post by Olga Mhilli, who has taught at the English college for over 7 years. She called it: “My Eulogy for SCE”
Olga is right – the show must go on, life continues, and the pandemic will cease – but right now it’s just plain tough.
To Olga and her SCE colleagues, and others in international education in the same situation – we are sorry for your loss.
