Japan's largest English school may close 200 branches

masaegu · (#1 (**permalink**))

"Nova Corp., reeling from a false advertising scandal, is planning to close at least 200 of its 900 or so schools later this month to turn around its struggling operations, sources said Thursday.

The nation's largest language school chain is mainly targeting money-losing branches, but some of the 200 branches are being closed for failure to pay rent, according to the sources."*

*Japan Times, Sept. 21, 2007

I hope that none of the Japan Forum members will be affected by this move, either as a teacher/employee or as a student.

LAMborghini · (#2 (**permalink**))

SErious??

OMG..what will happen to those who are already there in japan now? they will get retrenched?

masaegu · (#3 (**permalink**))

I'm afraid that there will be a lot of laying off taking place. I've found out that NOVA has suffered an estimated 19.2% plunge in the number of its enrollment during the past one year. So it's pretty natural that they would want to shut down about the same percentage of its existing branches.

Shadowulf · (#4 (**permalink**))

yeah that was in sydney papers yesterday =\
appears that due to the lack of funding/income, lots of the teachers at NOVA are being paid really late, or some havent even got paid yet... and (naturally) the teachers are getting quite pissed off

masaegu · (#5 (**permalink**))

Does anyone here have a first-hand experience with NOVA, either as an employee or as a student? I'd be interested in hearing some inside story as almost all of the reputations I have heard about this school have been negative right from its foundation.

vulgarshudder · (#6 (**permalink**))

Let's Japan.org :: View topic - The End of Nova Thread

This has alot of nova teachers discussion. Speculation is that nova is bankrupt by friday.

MMM · (#7 (**permalink**))

Wow! Is ECC and the other smaller English schools doing OK?

masaegu · (#8 (**permalink**))

Yes, they are doing ok so far. In fact, I actually think that many of the current NOVA students might choose to attend other schools after using up all their 'tickets'* to go to NOVA lessons, which they have already paid for.

*Some of the English schools in Japan, including NOVA, require the students to buy lesson tickets and to make appointments to attend lessons instead of giving lessons on a fixed schedule.

vulgarshudder · (#9 (**permalink**))

An ECC teacher mentioned that students don't seem to be reluctant to renew their contracts for a year, and are doing 3 or 6 months instead, saying cos of the nova business.

I think the eikaiwa industry's image has taken a bit of a beating, especially for any schools that operate a token system.

But much to everyone's surprise, the ATs and other higher up gaijin staff werer paid today. That just leaves the japanese staff's pay (due yesterday), and the grunts pay on October 15th or something.

masaegu · (#10 (**permalink**))

NOVA has now been granted court protection from creditors! The debts are estimated at 43.9 billion yen. All of NOVA's 900 or so schools will be shut down temporarily. Many of its 420,000 students fear that their tuition money may not be refunded.

On top of all that, NOVA president Mr. Nozomu Sahashi, who has been fired by the board of directors, is now missing.

NOVA grew too big too fast. Now it looks as though it were sinking even faster.