Vice-chancellor Prof. J shashidhar Prasad is reported to have told the media that there are atleast wo Mysore University faculty members who ‘bought’ post-doctoral degree from some fancy sounding foreign university with a contribution of $500. This degree wouldn't help them get a pay rise or promotion, for both were already professors when they opted for a degree-for-cash deal.
Prof. Prasad also referred to a private institute running a course in a tie-up with Adam Smith University in the US. A Google search revealed this university is recognized only in Liberia, and nowhere else in the US or Europe.
The vice-chancellor wouldn’t name the two faculty members or the university from where they got the dubious degree. ‘Find out for yourself, if you are interested’, Prof. Prasad told the media. He however gave this clue – one of the faculty members got the foreign degree for his ‘contribution’ to science, while the other obtained it in the field of literature.
Funny that the Vice Chancellor of Mysore University had mentioned this so casually and this may have happened a while earlier. If he wanted to go public, why did he do so now? What was the motive? Why no enquiry was made into this by the VC? If this is true, were the fake degrees used by these chaps to further their own goals? For $500 they would not have bought the degree just to hang on their walls, I presume!
This just goes to show that the Mysore University is corrupt. When professors can buy fake degrees, what stops the students (who may see these chaps as role models) from doing the same? Where will the buck stop? Should stop with the VC where he takes action. Not just media mention. There is so much politics in the University administration that perhaps the VC is not at liberty to upset the powerful lobbies and vested interests. Just see the politics involved between departments and during the senate elections. It would put Bihar/Bengal poilitics to shame. We may need a KJ Rao (remember the chap from the Election Commission who did wonders in Bihar?) to officiate during the elections.
Mr. VC, if you are indeed trying to set things right, keep the university academic in nature and out of politics, lets see some pro-active approach. The media will only lap up all the sound bites and nothing more.
Where will the buck stop? Should stop with the VC where he takes action. Not just media mention.
To give him the benefit of the doubt, V C must have had his reason for staying short of naming names. He must done a Google search, as I did, and found that there is no scope for proving his charge against the two faculty members. Check out www.instantdegrees.com, and you would know what I mean. These guys appear thorough.
On offer are Bachelor, Master, and Doctorate degrees, and MBA as well, from ‘legally formed’ private colleges that run distance education programs and correspondence degree courses. Online service provider of such degrees-for-dollars operate openly and claim that they arrange to get you a degree by exploiting legal loopholes. Their irrefutable logic is, ‘why fake a degree, if you have a legal alternative’. Their tariff starts from $110. Transcripts cost an additional $150. The Instantdegrees website has been in business for four years; would stay in business as long as there are legal loopholes to be exploited.
The one who buys his degree is under a ‘legally binding confidentiality contract’ that precludes disclosure of the website’s link with the degree-awarding institutions. Your payment is made through credit cards only, into a third-party account. They have thought of everything, haven’t they? And they have all the answers to your FAQs.
I would say the VC deserves our appreciation, for having dropped the brick, well timed (convocation eve) for optimum publicity. Presumably, he has gone as far as he could go. One would expect our concerned citizens groups and the media to take it from here, and make a campaign issue of it. Building up social and moral pressure could work, at times, to rouse the conscience of those guilty; and, more significantly, to dissuade those thinking in terms of going in degree-for-dollars.
My submission to Capt. Murthy: The buck doesn’t stop with VC. It starts from him, to coin a cliché.
Getting certificate from unrecognised foreign universities is not a new phenomenon. At least the Vice Chancellor needs to be commended for revealing this fact and on the top of it in giving a clue. Some investigative journalism can surely zero on these worthies. The point is since these worties are already professors nothing may come out of it and forit is posssible they may be on the verge of retirement. At least it will provide lively betting in University campus on some inspired guess work or tittering from back benches when they know the culprit. In fact the court in Punjab had unearthed the case of advocates their number running into hundreds geting fake certificates from Bihar university who were caught while getting registered and those were already practicing and who knows how many hapless customers suffered on account of it. It is no wonder if our erstwhile Chief Justice was prompted to say that 20% are corrupt. I suspect it is the otherway round. Mera Bharat Mahan
My reply to GVK is that as far as the University goes, the buck stops at the VC. What he has done (VC), is to open a can of worms!
I thought that it was common knowledge that there are many fake universities around the World. Maybe it's better known to those of us who have been living outside India, mainly in the US. I remember 20 years ago when I was a student at Hayward, CA, USA there were ads (no intenet then) in newspapers and magazines of Universities offering Bachelors Degrees based on one's "life experiences"!
There were many such scams. The gullible always fall for such scams, like they say in the US, a fool is born everyday. It is this pool of gullible people these "Universities" target. Internet has only expanded their business by manyfold.
Another aspect to this has been mentioned by Mr. H.R. Bapu Satyanarayana (thank you Sir)regarding fake degrees. Forget fake degrees being issued by fake/paper universities abroad, in India one can buy fake degrees from a Real University!! And it won't cost you $500!! These were available on the streets of Calcutta (maybe here as well)at one time. At one time, if I remember correctly, there were so many fake degree certificates (with real signature of the registrar-shows you how deep the corruption goes) issued by Bangaloe University that forced some companies to mention in their ads as follows: "Bangalore University Degree holders need not apply". So, there!