When private school M2 Academy stunned its students and staff in October with news that it was going to fold - barely a year after it opened - many were worried they would be left in the lurch .

But two private schools, Kaplan and PSB Academy, stepped in and took in the affected students.

M2 offered online courses, in- house diplomas, and degrees from the University of South Australia (UniSA), Edinburgh Napier University and the University of Canberra.

Students in UniSA's master of engineering programme at M2 were transferred to Kaplan, while the rest went to PSB, including those taking M2's in-house programmes.

They started at their new schools in late October, about two weeks after M2 announced its closure.

A spokesman for PSB Academy said it took in about 170 M2 students. Kaplan now has eight M2 students, as the cohort of engineering masters students is a small one. UniSA had appealed to Kaplan to take in its affected students.

A Kaplan spokesman said the transfer was a fairly simple process as UniSA provided the curriculum and course materials.

Kaplan set up a taskforce with staff from the academic, admission, and operation departments to facilitate the transfer.

The Council for Private Education monitored both transfers.

PSB officers met the students and addressed the students' concerns, the PSB spokesman added.

A team of academics and subject experts also looked at M2's curricula and how they could be mapped to PSB's offerings. In the process, some modules deemed unsuitable for PSB Academy's diploma programmes were discontinued.

Former M2 student Benedict Lim, 20, is now pursuing a diploma in business administration at PSB. He will graduate with a PSB diploma instead of an M2 one when he completes his studies.

Going to PSB was "a little awkward" at the start, but he quickly settled in as he was given the same timetable and he had the same lecturers. "It was quite seamless... I did not face any issue," he said.