Several Jamaican students who are studying at a small college in the United States have been de-registered because of their failure to live up to their financial obligations, putting them at risk of being deported.

The students, mainly from western Jamaica, are members of a group of 30 who went to La Roche College, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in August 2005 on half scholarships procured for them by 4E, an educational consultancy firm headed by Dr Nigel Darmanie, who operates from St George’s College, North Street, central Kingston, and Altamont Terrace, New Kingston.

Some parents of the affected students told the Observer yesterday that the arrangement was that the sponsors of the US$16,000-a-year scholarships would pay US$10,000, with the students finding the remaining US$6,000 from jobs they would get on the La Roche campus. However, the students were unable to find any such jobs from which they could earn enough to pay the US$6,000. And they risk deportation if they work off the campus.

In addition, some students are in arrears with their rent and could face eviction if they are not able to keep up the payments to their landlords.

Contacted for a comment last night, Dr Darmanie told the Observer that the students knew before they went to La Roche that they would have had to pay the US$6,000 difference. Before they left Jamaica, they had to prove to the school and to the US Embassy that they could pay, he said.

“Some were working on campus and some were not and they have had several months, since August, to find the money. It’s not that they didn’t know,” Dr Darmanie said, adding that he had put it in writing.

He said he recently called a meeting of the parents to further explain the situation to them but only nine had turned up. As a matter of fact, he said, 4E had kept the delinquent students in school up to now, “but on Friday we will hear who is coming home and who is staying”.

Ken Service, La Roche College’s vice-president for institutional relations, confirmed that some of the 30 Jamaicans were de-registered because “they have had difficulties meeting their financial requirements”. But he could not provide the Observer with details, as, he said, he was away from the campus when the newspaper called.

“We are required by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to report if a student is no longer registered,” he said.

Asked what were the chances of any of the students being sent home, Service said that that would not be something that the college would do. “All that the college is required to do is report their status” (to Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the largest investigative arm of the US Department of Homeland Security. It investigates breaches of the United States Student and Exchange Visitor System among its numerous duties.

“I honestly don’t know all the details of the regulations, but clearly that (de-registration) would put them out of status with their student visa,” Service said. “They would have several options. One would be to enrol in other institutions or they could go back home.”

He said the college did provide some scholarships, but international students have to present the college with an affidavit of financial support that indicates where they plan to get the rest of their funding.

Asked what was the status of the students now, Service said the college has been working with them “as much as possible”.

“We’ve worked out some payment plans with some of them who are not able to pay everything at once,” he said. “We’ve basically given them all of the options that we give any of our students when it comes to making their payments.”

Founded in 1963, La Roche College is located in the North Hills of Pittsburgh. It offers more than 50 undergraduate majors, 20 undergraduate minors and three graduate programmes. The subjects include graphic and communication design, the sciences, education, nursing and the graduate programme in human resources management.