Continued concerns are being raised by students over the company Southwestern Advantage.
Southwestern, a company offering ‘internships’ to York Students, has come under criticism again this week for immoral and deceitful behaviour.
Mike Anstey a prominent member of York’s Law society, and another anonymous third year student, approached Vision to discuss their experience, saying they felt “truly disturbed by the Southwestern Company’s use of exploitative techniques to recruit students.”
Despite being banned from Birmingham and Durham Universities over “concerns about the company’s method to market itself”, Southwestern is continuing to use dubious methods to recruit on York Campus, including approaching students in V-Bar, the Courtyard, and last year entering lectures against University regulations.
The company’s wholesales, Anstey explained to Vision, have grown to more than £280 million over the last few years, profiting from the door-to-door sales the student ‘interns’ engage in once in America. The company, in using British students, also qualifies for American tax breaks.
Because the students are ‘independent contractors’, the company offers no support or help for students who encounter unfriendly clients, or even the police, in areas where door-to-door sales are unwelcome. Furthermore, due to US regulations, all students must work alone.
One website, ‘southwesterncompanytruth.com’, is a forum dedicated to helping people dealing with the company, includes testimonials from people affected, including one which announces “Southwestern is dishonest. Southwestern exploits… Southwestern bullies and smears its critics.”
York careers services were aware of the Southwestern issue when Vision spoke to them. Andrew Ferguson explained that whilst the company does not have “mass appeal”, they did not want to “deny York students opportunities”, adding that students should be able to make “balanced and informed choices.”
Despite all this, there are York students who have enjoyed the ‘challenge’ of Southwestern. Oscar Wimhurst earnt around $15,000 in his first summer, and despite working 80 hours a week defends students’ rights to participate, saying; “you learn about leadership.”
In defence of the allegations of exploitation, he said that “everything is gone through beforehand.”