Another USA college busted; University of Northern Virginia

Dear friends,

Just yesterday, as I was talking about Wigan and Leigh College, UK  another college in the USA was being busted.

The University of Northern Virginia where several Indian students are enrolled, was raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE).

The officials from ICE’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) has asked UNV to stop admitting foreign students. This is another scam which is similar to TVU, involving student visa irregularities.  If UNV is also found to be engaged in improper handling of student visas, then it could face harsh consequences.  ICE is on with its investigation.

There are several such unaccredited colleges which are thriving in the USA. They mostly enroll foreign students. California and Virginia are the hubs where such sham colleges flourish as the regulations are lax there. Now what will happen to Daniel Ho, the owner of UNV? More importantly, what will happen to Indian students there?

Watch out this space for more updates!

Bogus Colleges in India

Several colleges cheat gullible students. Here’s one example.

Delhi-based Wigan and Leigh College, India or WLCI, a college providing undergraduate and graduate courses, used to claim (moderated its claim after a full-fledged story was published) that it was a partner of Wigan and Leigh College, UK.

Long after the partnership was over; WLCI did nothing to intimate students about the expired linkage. In fact, it let the perception remain afloat, which allowed them to attract students via the UK charm. Then it entered into a very ‘outlandish’ / fuzzy relationship with WLC, UK. This brought  UK’s WLC also under big question mark.  

In 1996, Wigan and Leigh College, UK (WLC, UK) while scouting franchise partners, set up a company called Wigan and Leigh College (India) joining hands with this Indian partner. The college was offering its franchise for £36,000.The aggressive hunt for Indian partners by WLC, UK had become a matter of concern even for the British Council of India. Well, it turned out soon that British Council’s concerns were not entirely misplaced.

No sooner that the tie-up happened between the two, WLC (India) claimed in its publicity brochure that it ran courses leading to an MBA awarded by Southampton Institute and accredited by Nottingham Trent University. But the truth was different; no such arrangement had taken place. The claim was an outcome of the assumption that such an arrangement will take place. Southampton Institute blasted WLC, UK over this inaccurate publicity brochure. WLCI, then Wigan and Leigh (India), had admitted its mistake. This episode took place in the very first year of tie-up i.e. in 1996. It wouldn’t be wrong to infer that the string of lies that WLCI embarked on a decade ago, still continues unchecked.

WLCI also flaunted it’s Edexcel qualification ( a UK degree awarding body), though the tie-up had ended in 2004. As regards using WLC as name/ acronym, the college says that it has taken permission from WLC, UK to use the acronym. Can WLC, UK allow its name to be used? I checked. It chose to remain quiet on that. The UK college didn’t deny, confirm or object on the name being used.

In 2006, a Pune-based student Karishma Kauga had taken admission in mass media course in WLCI, Pune. Dissatisfied with the quality of education, she filed a complaint against WLCI with the Pune District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum in January 2008 and won the case.

WLCI claims on a certain (high)number of faculty members, number of branches but they are all bunch of lies.

Students should be beware of such colleges. In my next blog, I will give some tell-tale signs of such bogus institutions so that students can keep away from them.

Jawaharlal Nehru University

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) carries a rich history and a unique culture. It loves to regale in its glory. It's past glory.It is disconcerting to notice that JNU is gradually slipping into a time warp.Here's why:

• The University lacks diversity of disciplines. Programmes in medicine, chemistry, engineering, architecture as well as other areas doesn’t exist leaving students to a limited, narrow choice of subjects. 
• The library isn’t fully digitized.
• Only some pockets of the campus are wi-fi enabled.
• The scholarship/ fellowship sum awarded to the candidates are very little.  For instance, Ford Foundation scholarship of Rs 700 per month made available to students of M.A. Programme of the School of International Studies could hardly cover cost of two books if personally-owned books .
• The placement records are nothing to write home about. Students either join NGOs, turn mid-level social entrepreneurs or struggle to secure a middle-level corporate job.
• Political slogans dominate the campus walls, giving an immediate feel that beyond political history, other disciplines contribute little in the life of students. Expressions related to environment, Information Technology, culture, physical sciences find little or no space on the wall.
• For a campus that engages in high-minded debate, it is ironical to note that a feature as elementary as public space cleanliness doesn’t strike the youths. I noticed a tea stall littered with plastic tea cups despite four trash bins installed at the venue. Students casually tossed the cups after finishing ‘intellectual’ talks over tea.
• A run-down Teflas (canteen), with poor maintenance and questionable hygiene greeted me with passable food. That’s pretty much the state of all canteens; chipped walls, energy-consuming primitive tubelights and rickety fans.
• Availability of vast expanse of space provides thought ground to academically ruminative minds. However, barring a few select pockets of  manicured greens, other stretches lie neglected, looking dead screaming for some green beautification.
• From the entrance to the administrative block and thereafter there are no signboards to guide a first time entrant to his/her destination in the 1100 acre campus
• I noticed students are generally not able to integrate well with evolving corporate culture. Not that they need to, but understanding the dynamics of a certain aspect is useful in presentation of any thought ideology.

Shouldn't a university be free of these fundamental shortcomings?

Foreign universities make huge income collaborating with Indian Institutions

Indian colleges which collaborate with foreign institutions charge high fees. Students cough up huge amounts as fees to get admitted. They obtain fancy overseas degree but what about real quality education? What is the academic worth of these degrees and diplomas in overseas employment market?  What is the real interest of the foreign universities behind collaboration?  Let’s look at the income that the foreign universities make with Indian tie-ups 

Lancaster University, in partnership with G.D. Goenka World Institute charges £700 ( Rs 49,000 at conversion rate of Rs 70)  per annum per student for its 3-year undergraduate programmes. The PG programmes too are validated on £700 fee per year per student.  Oxford Brookes (tie-up with IIMT) UG degrees are awarded to a student on a payment of £500. According to June 2009 Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA)  audit report, a UK-government recognized agency that reviews and audits the overseas collaborations, states:  “The number of students at IIMT registered on the Oxford Brookes programme in 2008 was 358”. It shows a total of £179,000 ( Rs 1,25,30000) remitted to UK in just one year. Similarly, the June 2009 QAA report of University Bradford (in partnership with IILM) mentions,” In June 2005-06 academic year the threshold was 180 enrolments….. the maximum number of new enrolments is negotiated annually..” Going by 2005-06 estimates, the University of Bradford dispatched £67500 ( or  Rs 47,25000) to its home campus that year.

The UK degree is seen as a stamp, an insignia which is tantamount to ‘the last word in quality’ in certain quarters in India. Feeding on this sentiment, the UK institutions are swamping Indian shores. Where else will they get English speaking demographic which is so smitten by the UK lifestyle and not-to question-the- degree quality youngsters.

Let’s look at the other statistics. Leeds Metropolitan University, operating in UK, could generate an income of only £2,56,8000 via tuition fees from Home and EC domicile students (Full-time PG) in the year 2008-09  On the contrary, it scooped a whopping £ 7,79,7000 from Overseas (non-EC) domicile students’ tuition fees. University of Wales received Funding Council Grants totaling  £ 581,773 in 2009, lower than what it received in 2008; £ 696,907.However, it’s validating services fee contributed a staggering  £703,8928. A sum decent enough to compensate for the ‘gap’ in Grant Money. Just as has been in the case of University of Wales, a whole lot of other UK institutions too had to settle for constricted Grants in 2009. In the meantime, the University pumped up its validation fee, which in 2008, stood at £5,440,765. For the uninitiated, the University of Wales (in collaboration with TASMAC) is the largest degree-awarding body in UK

AICTE, the statutory body, introduced regulations in 2005, under which foreign institutions imparting technical education are required to obtain approval from AICTE. The remit of AICTE includes engineering and technology, business and management, hotel and catering management, pharmacy, architecture and applied arts and crafts.  There is currently no legal framework to recognize qualifications awarded by foreign institutions on the basis of programmes delivered entirely in India. Yet, UK collaborative- linkups are taking place freely.

School teachers of India

                                               

                      
Today I read the news of a little girl who was stripped and locked in the school toilet for bad handwriting. I felt like I have been tortured and fatally kicked in the gut three times over. As a female, as an Indian and as a student of this education system. What kind of teachers are we producing? How are our students being mentored? I am choked with multiple questions and a rush of emotions.

Come on people, she is just a 6-year old! And punished for what? Excuse me? Bad handwriting?

The talk of teachers transports me back to my schools days and my interaction with them. Honestly, the recollections aren’t fond. Yes, I was spared the rod and I was lucky to escape highest degrees of humiliation.  But as a learner, I came out with zilch.  For fifteen years, I was a passive receiver, just like a majority of students in school. No active interaction with teachers, no mind- stimulation through activities like role-playing, meaningful debates, projects or field work. School was synonymous with fear.On good days, it was with duty. Looking forward to school? You got to be kidding!  

Our history teacher, Mrs. Rastogi, was a classic example of making studies mundane.

She would not let anyone open a book in her class. She never smiled, trudged her rotund self into class, parked herself on the chair, fished out her glasses from her large handbag bag, perched it on her nose, let out a sigh and select a chapter and start reading as if it was a punishment. Since we were inmates, we felt even worse.

She would read and read. And read some more. She would read all through the 40 minutes of the period, lifting her head from the textbook for a mere glance , just twice or may be three times.

The class never experienced any sort of explanation, debate, project or active involvement. The back benchers would make paper balls and volley them left and right, escaping her eyes, while the middle benchers would yawn and stealthily turn around to see the “game”. The front benchers were unlucky to be condemned to their places. The ancient, medieval and modern history came and went in four years’ time without arousing our interests.Mrs. Rastogi didn't change. We yawned more and prayed harder for her to be absent. Just like her, most  other teachers too, efficiently went through the motions of teaching in varying degrees. Talk about teachers' quality!

Only our Hindi and Economics teachers were less intimidating and allowed us a dialogue. No one bunked their classes. I always wondered why teachers made education a task rather than a delightful experience.  When I read history today, I enjoy it to the hilt.  

In hindsight, I wonder, had I got different teachers as mentors, would my personality been any different? Would my professional destiny be any different?

While my heart cringes for the innocent little girl who underwent this ordeal, the rage inside me kicks every now and then to tell me I have to do my bit to make this messy education system better.

Compassionate, not horrendous.

Humane, not inhuman.

Accommodating, not predatory

Amen!