The University Grants Commission has categorised 279 technical institutes and 23 universities as fake in India, Hindustan Times reported on Monday. Delhi has the highest number of fake colleges in a state, with 66 unapproved institutes.
These organisations do not have the necessary approvals to issue educational degrees and certificates to students, making documents granted invalid, UGC said. Seven of the 23 fake universities identified in the country are in Delhi, while most of the others are in Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra.
“We sent the list of unapproved and unregulated technical institutes to the state authorities concerned to take appropriate action. Public notices are also published in newspapers, cautioning students against seeking admission in such unapproved institutes,” an official told Hindustan Times.
The All India Council for Technical Education, which put the list together along with the UGC, has also sent notices to these universities for not seeking its approval. State governments have been asked to investigate the illegal colleges.
Minister of State for Human Resource Development Mahendra Nath Pandey had informed Rajya Sabha members of the matter recently. Pandey had said that state administrations had been asked to take action against institutes found guilty of conning students by representing themselves as “universities”, Hindustan Times reported.
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