azskeptic
12-08-2004, 05:31 PM
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1041209/asp/nation/story_4104063.asp
Fake varsities tie twins
MONOBINA GUPTA
New Delhi, Dec. 8: The twins may have their differences, but they share many traits, too — fake universities for one.
Despite the presence of monitoring institutions, dozens of substandard universities and professional institutions have come up in India and Pakistan, some of them claiming tie-ups with reputed foreign schools.
In 1985, there were 24 accredited universities in Pakistan. In the 1990s, several private institutions wangled university charters from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) — the counterpart of India’s University Grants Commission. By 2002, as many as 27 new universities dotted the country’s higher education landscape.
“Many of them did not even deserve to be colleges,” wrote Isa Daudpota, a former Karachi University teacher, in a newspaper article. “No monitoring and evaluation systems were put in place to ensure entry standards and educational quality,” he stressed.
Bombarded by Daudpota’s campaign through newspaper columns, the HEC recently sacked him. But it could not totally shut its eyes to reality.
In June this year, a HEC newsletter said: “All substandard campuses will be closed. New universities and campuses that do not pull their weight in two-and-a-half years will be closed down according to a decision of the federal cabinet.” However, very little has been done.
In India, the situation is similar. Private establishments are putting out advertisements claiming collaboration with well-known foreign institutions to lure gullible students who cough up huge fees to enrol.
“In effect, the collaboration is only on paper. There is no exchange of faculty members. In fact, the quality of teaching is substandard,” said a former official in the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration.
For instance, a private business school in Gurgaon boasts of collaboration with London School of Economics. “But neither the course nor the institution faculty in practice has anything to do with LSE,” said an economist.
In Pakistan, too, some of these establishments have advertised their partnership with foreign institutions that are not even accredited in their respective countries. For example, the American World University (AWU), an unaccredited institution in the US, is flourishing in Pakistan. One of AWU’s partners in Pakistan, according to reports, was an “education entrepreneur”.
Linked to substandard institutions is the burgeoning trade in fake degrees.
The Medical Council of India (MCI) has zeroed in on 200 doctors with fake degrees over the last four years. It has lodged FIRs against the guilty. Of the 200, at least 15 are from Andhra Pradesh. Each has an “MD physician” tag. The rules require doctors to submit their certificates to the MCI for verification.
In Pakistan, a large number of fake degrees — right up to PhD — was seized in Sialkot in October this year.
Fake varsities tie twins
MONOBINA GUPTA
New Delhi, Dec. 8: The twins may have their differences, but they share many traits, too — fake universities for one.
Despite the presence of monitoring institutions, dozens of substandard universities and professional institutions have come up in India and Pakistan, some of them claiming tie-ups with reputed foreign schools.
In 1985, there were 24 accredited universities in Pakistan. In the 1990s, several private institutions wangled university charters from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) — the counterpart of India’s University Grants Commission. By 2002, as many as 27 new universities dotted the country’s higher education landscape.
“Many of them did not even deserve to be colleges,” wrote Isa Daudpota, a former Karachi University teacher, in a newspaper article. “No monitoring and evaluation systems were put in place to ensure entry standards and educational quality,” he stressed.
Bombarded by Daudpota’s campaign through newspaper columns, the HEC recently sacked him. But it could not totally shut its eyes to reality.
In June this year, a HEC newsletter said: “All substandard campuses will be closed. New universities and campuses that do not pull their weight in two-and-a-half years will be closed down according to a decision of the federal cabinet.” However, very little has been done.
In India, the situation is similar. Private establishments are putting out advertisements claiming collaboration with well-known foreign institutions to lure gullible students who cough up huge fees to enrol.
“In effect, the collaboration is only on paper. There is no exchange of faculty members. In fact, the quality of teaching is substandard,” said a former official in the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration.
For instance, a private business school in Gurgaon boasts of collaboration with London School of Economics. “But neither the course nor the institution faculty in practice has anything to do with LSE,” said an economist.
In Pakistan, too, some of these establishments have advertised their partnership with foreign institutions that are not even accredited in their respective countries. For example, the American World University (AWU), an unaccredited institution in the US, is flourishing in Pakistan. One of AWU’s partners in Pakistan, according to reports, was an “education entrepreneur”.
Linked to substandard institutions is the burgeoning trade in fake degrees.
The Medical Council of India (MCI) has zeroed in on 200 doctors with fake degrees over the last four years. It has lodged FIRs against the guilty. Of the 200, at least 15 are from Andhra Pradesh. Each has an “MD physician” tag. The rules require doctors to submit their certificates to the MCI for verification.
In Pakistan, a large number of fake degrees — right up to PhD — was seized in Sialkot in October this year.