Santiago Nándar (, 29 years old) began the process to study in Madrid in August 2022. He met the “good reputation” he has in his country, but, mainly, because when he began to look for options it was the one that appeared the most in social networks. He was interested in doing so because he would have more merits for the labor market: “If you are a master’s degree, you are in a higher range. I needed that because I worked in a public entity and needed to improve my employment. I ended in February 2023 and started sending a daily email to EAE for a few months, but they never answered me, ”he says in an interview with this newspaper. It has been almost a year since its study program ended and has not yet received its diploma to be able to present it to the Colombian government. He returned to his country and now works for a private company, while waiting for his title to arrive to aspire to better jobs.
That was not the scenario that Nascar imagined when he decided to leave his life in America to come to Spain. He chose, for which he paid about 12,000 euros in cash, because they made “a special discount.” From that moment, he ensures that the administrative management of the school was always a disaster. “This university is a lost topic, thousands of mails without answering, it is a disorder for everything, they never answer you, they give you incomplete information,” he tells by phone from Bogotá.
He finished studying in February, the graduation ceremony was in June and, until now, he knows nothing about his title. He tried to obtain a certificate to prove that he had finished the program, but it was also an ordeal. “In September 2024, I finally answered the emails that I had been sending since February saying that I needed a role. I forward my complete documentation, which I had already sent months ago, and in October they replied that I could finally take a role that is literally a PDF in which I said that I had completed the master’s degree and for which they charged me 60 euros, ” duck. That role, to top it off, is not valid in your country.
It is not the only one. Diego Guzmán (Costa Rica, 31 years old) was interested in making a master’s degree after the pandemic and found a good offer in the EAE. In May 2022 began a program that was sold as “hybrid” for which he paid 7,500 euros with a discount – organizedly cost 15,000.
“I started looking for and the EAE came out in Facebook and Instagram ads, it looked quite well. There are many people from Costa Rica who have gone and encouraged, ”he says on the phone. When he arrived, he was surprised that this semipresential option was practically an autonomous method of videos with videos, and with a non -mandatory face -to -face class every two months. Despite that, he continued in the process and finished studying in December 2023.
From that moment, he has a certificate that proves that the program ended, but his diploma has not arrived or is close to arriving. “At the beginning of January, I was surprised that they were not yet processing my title because my data were expired and need a new ID; I don’t understand how they didn’t use my passport to do the process. ” And it finishes: “If it weren’t for me, the file would not be processed, I wrote them a year later out of curiosity and tell me that they did not contact me because I canceled the communications (because they were trying every month to sell me more programs), so that, that is why, that’s why, that’s why , they couldn’t tell me that there were problems with processing the title. ”
Students denounce there is a strong administrative disorganization by the EAE, according to different students of different nationalities, especially Latin American, to El País. “The truth, in that they are half disaster”; “I feel they just want to get money and ready”; “With everything you have to give you total monitoring to give you an answer,” three other students who have not wanted to reveal their name for fear of reprisals, who continue in the process of issuing their titles, tell you to this newspaper.
The situation reminds the call, when in 2022 the school ceased to be attached to the Rey Juan Carlos University (public) and, since then, completed in the private center and certified by the public university, according to the latter. EAE reduces the figure to 714 affected from two promotions (364 in 2020 and 350 in 2021). This lack of the document prevents them from demonstrating their merits in a job interview.
Contradictions in the deadlines
In the graduation ceremony, in which some 2,000 students more their guests participate, only one band is placed. For the delivery of the diploma, there are different deadlines depending on whether it is its own title (only issued by the EAE) or official (valid for other parts of the world and in collaboration with other universities). One of them is the and that was created by the same company: the Planeta Group.
The University has communicated different waiting times for the delivery of titles, it depends on who consults. First, on the website to which current students have access, a document to which the country has had access, which indicates that the diploma itself takes between seven to nine months to be delivered is hung. While the officer, a year and a half.
Some students graduated in June 2024, the last ceremony held, were told by mail that “expect” to have finished the processes for the first quarter of this year, that is, at the edge of nine months. The same told those who graduated the year before, but at nine months they knew anything about the diploma, whether they were their own or official title.
“A year later, I contact them by an email and they told me that they already had it ready, but I can say that it was perhaps the first one to be sent because I asked,” says José Pablo Cordero, another 28 -year -old Costa Rican, graduated in June 2023.
A student interested in entering school has been confirmed that the delay time for the diploma is “a couple of months”, as this newspaper has verified. However, another was the deadline that they told Guzmán, who is waiting to receive his own diploma and the officer. In his particular case, on January 7 he was told that The “issuance of titles takes between 18 and 24 months.”
All these times also differ from the informed to El País by the director of the school, Raquel González, in an interview by phone. “When a student ends his course successfully, what he has to do, as in any other institution, is to request his diploma. The deadlines begin to count since the documentation attached so that this application is correct, ”says the director of the school. And he adds that the delay time for their own titles is between one to three months. “There is no delay of the school titration issuance,” González insists.
Another contradictions is the cost of the completion certificate, with which students can ensure that the program is over, either for personal or labor issues. Students of different masters have confirmed that the EAE charged 60 euros for that act, but González ensures that these certificates have no cost. “Usually that does not have an additional cost. All students accessing their training have access to the request for notes, assistance, etc. He asks us at the Secretariat of the School and is issued, ”he says.
What are the deadlines in other public and private universities?
EAE is a case apart from other private universities in Madrid. It confirms it to El País that the waiting time of the students, once their master’s degree is over, is approximately one month; while the diploma are given to the graduation ceremony itself. He also ensures that his master’s students also receive their own title at the ceremony, one or two months after the course. “There is no waiting time,” says the Communication Department.
In reporting that “Master’s official titles have an issue of approximately four to six months from the student’s request. The own titles are delivered in the same graduation act. ” The same thing also happens in public centers. They say that the issuance of their own diplomas takes “between four and six months, although they usually have before.” While with the officers they take “about six months.” In the similar works: “If it is an official master’s degree, the deadline would be about five months (it usually takes less), if it is its own master, about three months.”
