National

Action against unauthorised educational institutions

NEW DELHI: Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh has asked the University Grants Commission (UGC), All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the Distance Education Council (DEC) to take immediate action against unrecognised and unauthorised higher educational institutions.

The three statutory bodies have been asked to submit action-taken reports by the month-end. The Minister issued the instructions on Sunday, just days after he made an “appeal” — through advertisements in leading newspapers — asking students and parents to be extra-cautious while seeking admission in the private higher educational institutions that have mushroomed over the past decade.

As of June 13 this year, the UGC had a list of 21 fake universities across eight States. Uttar Pradesh topped the list with eight such institutions; followed closely by Delhi which has seven. The remaining seven are in Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

The AICTE list of unapproved institutions runs much longer. At the last count, AICTE found 169 institutions conducting courses in the field of technical education without obtaining its approval. Besides, there is another list of 104 institutions conducting technical education programmes in collaboration with foreign universities without AICTE approval.

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