Page 1 - ELG1601 May Issue 436

ELgazette

£3.50 • US$6.50 • ¥700 • €5.50 The newspaper for English language and international education Issue 436 | May 2016

EL lecturer

murdered

Inside... A BRITISH EFL lecturer at
Hong Kong Polytechnic Univer-
sity has been murdered in what
local police describe as an ‘emo-
tional dispute’ with his girlfriend
in the city of Shenzhen, just over
the border in mainland China.
Hilary St John Bower, aged 60,
was a few months away from
retirement when he disappeared
at the end of March.
Bower’s death was only con-
firmed – by Shenzhen police
via their social media – in
Yuya Shino / Reuters mid-April. According to police
sources, the victim’s girlfriend
– identified by the surname Xu
– admitted murdering Bower

membered’ his body. Xu handed
Page 3: UK Parliament with two accomplices, then ‘dis-
opens inquiry into mass Fake uni in visa CLASS OF ’16 After successfully enrolling herself into police in the city of
student deportations in Hisashi High School in Waseda, Japan, a Dongguan.
The Daily Mail claimed Bower
Pepper humanoid robot (pictured) has
‘sting operation’ started English lessons with ‘his’ human had a ‘complex’ love life, involv-
ing several women in mainland
classmates. Developed by SoftBank
China. He was reportedly an
robotics, Pepper will ‘mostly take part in
English classes’, aided by an ‘impressive
a flat in Shenzhen shortly before
array of language skills’ and cameras that expected beneficiary of the sale of
allow him to identify human emotions. The his death, valued at £810,000 by
THE UNIVERSITY of Northern New Jersey qualified for temporary post-study skilled school hopes Pepper’s participation in some sources, but his death was
(UNNJ), founded in 2013, had a distinguished- work permits (H-1B visas) on the basis of English will encourage the human students apparently unrelated. n
looking coat of arms featuring an opened book ‘degrees’ obtained from UNNJ, according
and a scroll with the motto: ‘Humanus, Sceintia, to a law enforcement official quoted by the
Integritas’. Over 1,000 students had enrolled in New York Times.
UNNJ, whose busy Facebook and Twitter feeds The Gazette has found three online CVs
notified students of closures for holidays or dur- on job and start-up website angel.co from
ing blizzards. But the whole university was a alumni of UNNJ who claim to have an
fake, a sting operation run for over two years MBA finance, a bachelor of engineering and
Pages 7–12: EU special by undercover agents of US Homeland Secu- a masters in international studies.
with a focus on Spain, Italy, rity that led to the arrest and indictment of 21 The US Immigration and Customs Enforce-
Poland and the Netherlands educational agents, student recruiters or ‘visa ment (ICE) website now states that ‘study
brokers’ on visa fraud charges. records of any non-immigrant student enrolled
All UNNJ staff were Homeland Security at UNNJ will be terminated’ as well as those
agents from the Newark office posing as of any students who have ‘since transferred
what the New York Daily News described from UNNJ’ as they have ‘knowingly partici-
as ‘corrupt administrators’. In secretly pated in visa fraud by enrolling at UNNJ for
recorded conversations, they invited will- the sole purpose of illegally obtaining and/or
ing ‘recruiters’ to ‘arrange to obtain visas maintaining their F-1 non-immigrant status’.
by having individuals enrol in a fake univer- ICE will send them letters telling them to
sity’. This was a ‘pay to stay’ operation, in ‘depart the country immediately’. Former and
which the recruiters and the students knew current UNNJ students – including some who
there were no classes and no faculty. have since been granted Green Card perma-
Indeed, the absence of any actual classes nent residence status and some naturalised US
was ‘a big draw’. UNNJ’s student body – all citizens – now face ‘removal’ according to the
international students, most of them already New York Times.
in the US – enrolled in fake masters pro- The rented building at 25 Commerce
grammes to extend their stay on F-1 student Drive in Cranford, New Jersey, pinned onto
Page 14: The art of visas. These normally give part-time work Google Maps as the UNNJ, has now been
analysing a corpus, with rights for ‘campus jobs’, so some UNNJ vacated, and its convincing website, which
the UAL Language Centre ‘students’ worked illegally. Other students promised an ‘exceptional educational expe-
(after paying fees in four figures to agents) rience’, is now down. n

Japan wants real English signs

THE JAPANESE government, aware that It remains to be seen whether the initia-
the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games tive to promote English signage in Japan’s
are just around the corner, is pushing retail- capital will result in the sort of language
ers to display English language signs, errors – now rarer – for which Japanese
business publication Nikkei Asian Review English signs were famous in the past.
has reported. The Ministry of Economy, Examples include: ‘You are invited to take
Trade and Industry’s website has prepared advantage of the chambermaid’ and ‘Guests
multilingual guidelines for signage in the are requested NOT to smoke or do other dis-
retail industry to promote and develop a gusting behaviours in bed’ at Tokyo hotels.
Page 16: Falling in love ‘realistic multilingual environment’ in the See the EL Gazette April 2016, page 3 for
with language – interview country. The government aims to attract 40 Japan’s initiatives to improve the English
with Claudia Beccheroni million tourists with the Olympic Games. proficiency of students and teachers. n