A Sydney clinical aesthetics college run by an Order of Australia medallist has been told by the federal Department of Education that it intends to cancel the college's accreditation.
The Australasian College of Health and Wellness in Glebe is the second education provider owned by Maureen Houssein-Mustafa OAM that could close if it does not successfully appeal against the Department's show cause notice.
![Beauty college owner Maureen Houssein-Mustafa.](/web/20170126072930im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/i/s/u/a/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtwurm.png/1485336947579.jpg)
More than 500 students were left in limbo just before Christmas Eve when another one of her beauty colleges, Australasian College Broadway, suddenly went into administration and closed its doors.
The Glebe college was approved to deliver a degree backed by taxpayer-funded student HECS loans in applied health in 2015, despite Australasian College Broadway remaining under a NSW police investigation into whether it enrolled hundreds of "phantom students" into diploma courses they never completed. Ms Houssein-Mustafa has always strenuously denied the allegations.
On Monday, she said the police investigation was caused by "people trying to get me" and an "an aggrieved staff member who was a mental health patient who wanted to cause trouble".
"I paid $1.1 million for independent forensic investigators to turn my company upside down," she said. "I've done nothing wrong."
Ms Houssein-Mustafa said the show cause notice "was just a letter".
"They have to do that, we have 100 per cent transparency with the department."
![Under administration: Australasian College Broadway.](/web/20170126072930im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/i/s/8/z/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtwurm.png/1485336947579.png)
She said the college would appeal against the intention to cancel its accreditation.
The degree college has been put onto the market in an attempt to recoup some of the cost of the collapsed VET-FEE HELP diploma college.
Ms Houssein-Mustafa said there had been 16 expressions of interest in the higher education business.
The cancellation could cost Ms Houssein-Mustafa up to $14.5 million, the amount the Sydney beauty entrepreneur says she spent between 2013 and 2015 to get approval for delivering degrees, where students learn how to work in dermal therapy and aesthetics clinics.
She said she has been devastated by the social media backlash against her Broadway college's collapse, which offered diploma courses in make-up and beauty.
"I'm at the stage where I'm thinking I've dedicated my life to helping people and people seem to think they can say whatever they want on Facebook," she said.
"Put yourself in my position, I can barely walk out the door, let alone enrol people."
The plea comes as it emerges that a 15-year-old was enrolled in a diploma course days before the Broadway college went into administration.
Brianna Gomes was told she should apply for VET-FEE HELP before the government scrapped the scheme this year.
The teenager went to the Broadway college with her disabled mother in December but did not have a tax file number to complete the paper work required to enrol in the beauty course worth up to $18,000 a year.
"The mum was told to fill in the VET-FEE form and sign, then the tax file number could be added later," said family friend Scott Lattimer.
"On December 22, the mum was called and was told that the college had not yet received the tax file number and they needed it ASAP," said Mr Lattimer. "There were two more calls that day to ensure the daughter had supplied the correct details, the college closed down not 24 hours later.
"Truly deplorable," he said.
Ms Houssein-Mustafa said she did not know the college was going to close until a signed business deal fell through just days before. She said students should have their tuition fees re-credited.
The entrepreneur defended the practice of signing up teenagers to the now-axed VET-FEE HELP student loans scheme, having herself left school as a 16-year-old to build a beauty empire estimated by BRW in 2014 as being worth $40 million.
"Most kids start at 16 and 17, that is their calling, that is when they are passionate. A majority of them don't want to go to university," she said.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said it would not comment on any compliance action until it is finalised.