Are you a victim of a fraud college?
One of my virtual friends from my same fraternity i.e. HR asked me to write an article on the above subject matter and I thought it is an interesting idea to write on such subject matter. Needless to say, in my previous many articles, I have written about the universities, degree system, type of universities, ranking of colleges, precaution needs to be taken while opting for a distance education and so on.
People in India need degree for various reasons and one of the least reason is- knowledge. The most obvious reason is job and then comes tag.
Well, we know that a college awards a degree and unlike most of the countries in the world, in India, universities are of 2 types- 1. Unitary 2. Unitary cum affiliating
What is a unitary university?
A unitary University is a university spread in acres of campus. These universities do not and cannot affiliate any college outside its campuses. These universities cannot offer any course outside its campuses not even in distance mode or online mod (if they are private and deemed universities). Few examples are:
1. All private universities in India
2. All deemed universities in India
3. Annamalai University (A state university, but it is a unitary university; it can offer distance education courses all over Tamil Nadu state but through its own study centres, not through a private franchisee agreement)
What is a unitary cum affiliating university?
These are the universities who have their own campus and offer courses through this campus. They also affiliate private as well as government sponsored colleges within their jurisdiction. Every University has their own jurisdiction to affiliate such colleges. For example, University of Mumbai has jurisdiction over the district of Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Raigad and Ratnagiri. University of Pune has jurisdiction over Pune District, Nashik, Ahmednagar etc. so any college who wants to offer the degree courses or operate, they have to take affiliation from Pune University only and not from any other universities. The same rule applies to any University in India. Few universities have jurisdiction over all over the state. For example, Maharashtra Universities of Health sciences have jurisdiction all over the Maharshtra for Medicine, Ayurvedic, Homeopathy, Ayurvedic, Pharmacy, Nursing, Physiotherapy and Occupational therapy courses. Most of the states have such kind of health or technological universities. However, they can offer the affiliation only for the courses mentioned in their respective Act. Similarly, West Bengal University of Technology has jurisdiction all over the state of West Bengal to affiliate college in the state. This means, any college who want to offer an engineering courses must take affiliate from West Bengal University of Technology and not from any other institute. Only exception to this is IITs, NITs etc. Similarly, Calcutta University has jurisdiction over the few districts of Calcutta (not specifically mentioned in the Act of the University, but it affiliate colleges in the west Bengal wherever other universities do not have presence).
An affiliating university cannot affiliate any college beyond their jurisdiction defined in the Act of the University.
What is a college in India? How are they established?
A college is an institute which can conduct necessary training and conduct exam on behalf of the university from which it has an affiliation. To verify whether an institute is or college or not, it must satisfy following criteria:
1. It must be linked to a trust or a society registered under the specific public trust Act for instances in Maharashtra and Gujarat, under the Bombay Public Trust Act and Registration of Societies Act 1860 or as a not for profit company under the companies Act.
2. This alone is not sufficient. Every state has a education department. Such college must get approval from such department.
3. Apart from this, if a college is offering an engineering programme, it must have approval from AICTE, if a college is offering a teachers education programme like D.Ed., B.Ed., M.Ed., it must have approval from NCTE, a MBBS college must have approval from Medical Council of India, a dental college must have approval from Dental Council of India, a nursing college must have approval from nursing council of India, a BAMS, BHMS, BNYS, BUMS (Ayurvedic, Homeopathy, Naturopathy and Unani) college must have approval from AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India (all of them are central government bodies). There are few other councils too.
4. They must offer the seat sanction to them. They cannot offer more than that. Any seat offer more than the seats limited is violation and the degree becomes invalid.
5. Each such college must have minimum teachers with minimum prescribed qualifications from the UGC (University Grants Commission) and the respective bodies as well as state government.
If any of the institutes do not meet above criteria, they are not the college. They are simply fake and you are losing your money.
A distance learning degree cannot have a college. Such distance learning degree, diplomas, post graduates degrees should offered through their respective university directly without engaging a private person, institute, coaching institute.
Typically, a college has the minimum infrastructure such as minimum 1 acre of land (and in metro may be at least ½ acre of the land), multiple classrooms, office, principal’s office, washrooms, practical laboratories etc. You cannot ignore them. A college cannot be opened in one or two rooms, cannot be opened in shopping mall, cannot be opened just like a convenience store.
Example is, WLC (Wigan and Leigh College) who does not have any approval. It could term it just as a training institute, but you know, you cannot earn lakhs of Rs just for training and cannot run it for 2 years. You have to fake your programme as an MBA or a management programme, that’s why they faked it).
Few of the fake colleges you can see on internet, hoardings are:
1. Mckoy Distance College Barrackpore
2. AIEM, Ayano Institute, West Bengal
3. Swami Vivekanand College of Distance Education, Thane, Mira Road, Andheri Mumbai
4. MCM Academy
5. AIECT DISTANCE EDUCATION CAMPUS(SARF)(UGC APPROVED UNIVERSITY STUDY CENTER as it claims but the fact is UGC does not recognize any college, it just grants recognition to universities)
You can go through my various article on my blog which provides you enough clarity. A degree from a private agents are mostly fake and may look tempty, easy but push your future in dark. Just look at following The Hindu article:
The Medical Council of India has issued a notice on Wednesday cautioning students to check the status of medical colleges before seeking admission.
The notice follows violation of MCI rules by two institutions – Singhania University, Pacheri Bair, in Jhunjunu district of Rajasthan and Surendra Medical College and Hospital in Khagol, Patna.
According to the notice, Singhania University had issued an advertisement claiming that it was “recognised under section 2 (f) of the UGC Act 1956 and does not require MCI approval to impart education and award degree for the same such as MBBS, MD & MS.”
Reena Nayyar, secretary in-charge of MCI, has pointed out that under the provisions of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, prior permission of the Central government is required to establish a new medical college and impart courses in modern medicine. She has said that such permission is granted by the Central government on the recommendation of the Medical Council of India.
“Admission made by any institution that imparts courses in modern medicine, or Diploma in various streams of medicine; MD/MS/DM/M. Ch without permission of the Central government is illegal and students so admitted shall not get recognised medical qualification entitling them to practise medicine,” the notice said. In the case of the Surendra Medical College and Hospital, Khagol, also the courses of medicine offered “are illegal and void ab initio”, the notice adds.
The MCI website, www.mciindia.org has the name of colleges, along with their status, number of seats approved/permitted.
If you have any query about any college, institutes and validity, please feel free to ask.
Govind
Mumbai
February 02, 2015