BANGALORE: According to a new alert by the University Grants Commission (UGC), the Badaganvi Sarkar World Open University Education Society in Gokak, Belgaum, is a fake university.
It is one of the 21 fake universities and institutions in the country that are running in contravention of the UGC Act, 1956.
Eight of them are in Uttar Pradesh, six are in Delhi and one each is in Bihar, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal.
Those institutions running unauthorised technical and management programmes outnumber them.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) pegs their number of institutions at 350.
While Karnataka has 27, Delhi and Maharashtra have 75 each, Andhra Pradesh 52, West Bengal has 34, Uttar Pradesh 30, Haryana 17, Tamil Nadu 14, Chandigarh nine, Gujarat four, Punjab three, Bihar, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Goa two each and Uttarakhand and Kerala have one each.
The names of such fake universities and unapproved technical institutions have been included in the list maintained by the UGC and the AICTE, respectively, and are posted on their official websites for students and general public.
In addition, both the higher education regulatory boards have requested the state and Union Territory governments to initiate action under the Indian Penal Code against these fake/unapproved universities and institutions.
A legislative proposal to prohibit unfair practices in higher educational institutions has been already introduced in Parliament.