Corruption in Indian universities – A way of life

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Corruption in Indian universities – A way of life

April 30th, 2015 | Author: Editorial

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) recently examined the education situation in India and published its findings in November 2014 [Link].
An Indian student told a BBC reporter, “It is our democratic right! Cheating is our birthright.”

BBC reported that the rich can usually bribe their way to examination success. “There’s even a whole subset of the youth population who are brokers between desperate students and avaricious administrators,” it said.

Then there is another class of students who are renowned for their political links so that the invigilators dare not touch them. They even leave daggers on their desk when taking exams and the invigilators dare not go near them.
The BBC reporter explained that because the rich and the politically linked can cheat, the poorer students ask why they should not as well.

Another person told the reporter, “India’s university system is in crisis. Cheating happens at every level. Students bribe to get admission and good results. Research students get professors to write their dissertations. And the professors cheat too, publishing articles in bogus journals.”

Besides a high level of corruption, Indian universities are poorly ranked because the curricula in Indian universities are generally poor.

A lady told the reporter, “If you really want to know the truth, there’s no point in studying properly. You just need to buy one of the cheat books sold in the bazaar and learn the answers.”
She added, “In my first year doing history I tried to study properly, but my seniors just told me: ‘Buy the cheat books.’”

Bribe your way to Vice-Chancellorship

Even the Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIT Kanpur lamented in an article [Link] that it is an open secret in some states that the ministers demand tens of millions of rupees for the appointment of Vice-Chancellorship in universities.

These “Vice-Chancellors” then profit on their “investments” from the affiliated colleges and from the various appointments and promotions in the university. The lecturers in turn would engage in all forms of illicit practices to recoup the sum from the students and others. For example, besides demanding sexual favours, thesis supervisors and examiners extract sizeable sums of money from the helpless students before final approval.

“It is not difficult to see the spiralling effect of such a practice deeply penetrating every level of the academia,” the writer said.

“Another cause for concern is the corruption in granting approval for new institutions. Many worthless institutions had obtained the status of deemed universities through bribing. So is the case with technical institutions.”

The writer also explained why Indian universities tend to be sub-standard, “Of late, the establishment of private universities under state legislatures has become a lucrative venue for huge illicit collections in some states. Many such universities tend to resist any form of regulation to maintain quality and standards of academic programmes.”

14 persons from University of Mumbai arrested over exam paper leak

At University of Mumbai, which Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) recently tried to defend as a “reputable university” (‘IDA says Univ of Mumbai is a ‘reputable university’‘), 14 people were arrested 3 years ago in connection with the leak of 3 engineering examination question papers set by the university [Link].

They included 2 senior professors, 5 engineering students, 5 peons and 2 lab assistants.

Apparently, leaked question papers for first year engineering were sent to the media the night before the examination.

Last week, an IDA staff, Nisha Padmanabhan, entered the spotlight when she was discovered to have obtained her MBA from a degree mill in Malaysia. IDA defended her saying that she was recruited based on her Bachelor’s degree and that the degree is from a “reputable university” i.e. University of Mumbai. Her MBA was “not a relevant certificate for her position in IDA”, IDA added.


Ms Padmanabhan graduated from University of Mumbai with a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunication in 2001.


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