At a time when the state boards have started releasing Class XII results and admissions to various undergraduate courses in universities and colleges are slated to open, the apex regulatory body of higher education the University Grants Commission (UGC) has released a list of 24 “self-styled” and fake varsities that are operating across the country, including eight in national Capital on Tuesday.
“Students and public at large are informed that at present following 24 self-styled and unrecognised institutions are functioning in contravention of the UGC Act in various parts of the country,” said a notice issued by the UGC. “These universities have been declared as fake and are not entitled to confer any degrees,” it added.
The fake universities which have been found functioning in Delhi include Commercial University, United Nations University, Vocational University, ADR-Centric Juridical University, Indian Institution of Science and Engineering, Viswakarma Open University for Self-employment, Adhyatmik Vishwavidyalaya and Varanaseya Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya. “With UGC coming up with the list of fake universities students who have appeared in their board exam and looking for taking admission in various courses in universities should ensure before applying that the university is recognised by the apex regulator,” said a DU teacher.
Other universities, which have been identified as fake, include one each from Pondicherry, Aligarh, Bihar, Rourkela, Odisha, Pratapgarh, Mathura, Kanpur, Nagpur, Kerala, Karnataka, Bihar and two universities in Allahabad.
last year also, the UGC had released a list of such fake universities which included Maithili University/Vishwavidyalaya, Darbhanga (Bihar), Varanaseya Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya, Varanasi (UP), Commercial University ltd Daryaganj (New Delhi), United Nations University, Delhi and Vocational University, Delhi.