Govt websites list fake institutes

HRD minister Arjun Singh on Tuesday appealed to parents and students to be cautious against unrecognized and dubious educational institutions.

HRD minister Arjun Singh on Tuesday appealed to parents and students to be cautious against unrecognized and dubious educational institutions.

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The University Grants Commission has identified 21 fake universities whereas the All India Council for Technical Education has listed over 168 unrecognised institutes on their respective websites. However, there is now law for the government to take direct action against them.

Singh asked the students and parents to check on portals of higher education whether the government has recognized a particular educational institution or not and whether they are of quality and repute.

“In particular, you should not merely go by the advertisements issued in the media by higher educational institutions, but satisfy yourselves by all counts in respect of quality and statutory recognition,” Singh said in the appeal.

All statutory authorities have been asked to keep an alert eye on misleading advertisements in the media so as to ensure that the veracity of any tall claims, he said. Recently, a large number of private educations institutions have issued advertisements in media making claims over placement and educational facility.

Singh also urged the media to refuse to carry bogus and baseless advertisements intended to defraud unsuspecting parents and students, “even it means loss of advertisement revenues so that the media does not become a party to attempts by the unscrupulous to trifle with the future of our younger generation”.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) had recently come out with a state-wise list of fake universities. Uttar Pradesh with eight such institutes has the dubious distinction of having the largest such universities. They include one each in Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

AICTE has come out with two lists: one Indian institutes not recognized by the council and second institutes which have foreign collaboration without the government approval. There are 124 Indian institutes and 64 with foreign collaborated not recognized by AICTE. The list includes institutes from reputed private universities that had been advertising in media. The council has put the list on basis of complaints received from students and advertisements in media.