UGC issues list of 24 'fake universities': Details here
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued a list of 24 'fake universities' which are no longer allowed to confer degrees. Seven of these are in the national capital. They also include some in Kerala, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Karnataka and Puducherry. Releasing the list, the Commission urged students not to take admission in these institutes. Check the full list here.
The 'fake universities' include two Kolkata branches of Indian Institute of Alternative Medicine, and in UP, Mahila Gram Vidyapith/Vishwavidyalaya, Gandhi Hindi Vidyapith, Varanaseya Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya, National University of Electro Complex Homeopathy, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose University, UP Vishwavidyalaya, Maharana Partap Shiksha Niketan Vishwavidyalaya, and Indraprastha Shiksha Parishad. From Odisha, Nababharat Shiksha Parishad and North Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology have been listed.
From Delhi, Commercial University Ltd, United Nations University, Vocational University, ADR-Centric Juridical University, Indian Institution of Science and Engineering, Viswakarma Open University and Adhyatmik Vishwavidyalaya have been included. Then there's Maithili University/Vishwavidyalaya (Bihar), Badaganvi Sarkar World Open University Education Society (Karnataka), St. John's University (Kerala), Raja Arabic University (Maharashtra) and Sree Bodhi Academy of Higher Education (Pondicherry).
According to the UGC Act of 1956, UGC-specified degrees can be conferred only by a university established by a Central or State Act, or an institution deemed to be university under Section 3, or an institution especially empowered by an Act of Parliament.
Last November, the UGC has asked a whopping 123 higher education institutes to drop the word 'university' from their names. These included reputed ones including BITS Pilani, Christ University (Bengaluru), Symbiosis International University (Pune) and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (Delhi). Under Section 23 of the UGC Act, only those established as universities by the aforementioned definition can use the word in their name.
