Guwahati: Private educational institutions in India formulated a cash-cow model by tying up with foreign universities and giving the students the degree of that university without the student ever stepping to that foreign university campus even once.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has now come up with a notification that strictly states that such degrees offered by the colleges will not be valid in the country.
UGC has released a notification for those foreign universities that set up their campuses in India or collaborate with higher educational institutions (HEIs) in the country without following proper procedures.
The UGC noted that any such collaboration or arrangement will not be recognised by it.
The official notification of the commission said, “UGC has observed and has been informed that many HEls/colleges have entered into collaborative agreements/arrangements with foreign-based educational institutions/providers not recognised by the Commission and have been facilitating the issuance of degrees to the students enrolled in those institutions/college from such foreign-based educational institutions/educational providers.”
Many students have passed out of such universities and now their degrees are deemed invalid these students have now approached the court as all these foreign university degrees primarily from United Kingdom (UK) universities are not valid in India.
Thousands of students have spent lakhs of rupees in getting those degrees and it has been reported that all these universities lured these students to get into the courses by stating that they would get foreign degrees from a UK university at a much cheaper rate. But the catch was that they didn’t check that these universities have not taken any approval from the UGC.
Highlighting the ‘unrecognised degrees’ that are offered by collaborative efforts of EdTech companies and foreign universities, the commission noted, “It has also come to the notice of UGC that some EdTech companies are giving advertisements in newspapers social media television, etc offering degree and diploma programmes in online modes in association with some foreign universities/institutions. Such a franchisee arrangement is not permissible and any such programme/degree shall not have UGC recognition.”
UGC also stated that it will take action against all the defaulting EdTech companies as well as the HEls under applicable laws/rules/regulations.