UGC member demands 'oversight committee' to check exploitation of students

NEW DELHI: Against the backdrop of Delhi Police registering a case against founder of IIPM, UGC member M M Ansari today demanded an "oversight committee" to check the exploitation of innocent students aspiring for quality education.

Ansari also slammed the University Grants Commission (UGC) for failing to check such institutes, saying he has raised the matter again and again in several commission meetings but with no tangible results.

"The regulatory bodies are a silent spectator of such malpractices in the education system," he told.

"The government must constitute an oversight committee to check the exploitation of innocent students aspiring for quality education," he added.

Oversight committees oversee the operations and activities of specific local government committees such as finance, public works, health, education etc.

Ansari's demand comes against Delhi Police having registered an FIR against Arindam Chaudhuri, founder of Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), on the basis of a complaint by the University Grants Commission of "misleading, cheating and fooling" its students as its courses were not recognised by any recognised authority.

He said today thousands of educational institutes like IIPM, against which police had registered FIR, are commonly misleading and enticing students on the pretext of offering job oriented courses at exorbitant costs.

The UGC, in its complaint, has said that despite the fact its courses are not authorised, the institute was "fooling" the students by charging a hefty fee from them.