Saturday, Sep 04, 2010
Students pay through their nose, say they were misled all the way

• Rs. 4 lakh charged against prescribed fee of Rs. 37,500
• Pondicherry University VC calls it 'outright fraud'

Bangalore: Pondicherry University has issued a notice to a Bangalore-based, private group of educational institutions following repeated complaints from students alleging that the college had been palming off its correspondence course as a full-time regular course, and charging fees far exceeding the prescribed fee.

Pondicherry University, a Central varsity, has demanded an explanation from Garden City College, its partner for a Twinning Programme, and is in the process of setting up an inquiry. If found guilty of misleading students, the college's recognition may be revoked, said J.A.K Tareen, Vice-Chancellor of Pondicherry University. Controversial area
An often murky and under-regulated sector, 'distance education' has been a controversial area what with several institutes misleading students and charging arbitrary fees. For instance, when Raghav (name changed) applied to the Garden City College's full-time MBA course, affiliated to Bangalore University, he was told the seats were full. Instead, they offered him a course "affiliated to Pondicherry University". What was not mentioned was that it was a 'distance education course', and students were told it was a 'Twinning Programme' with classes round the year. Raghav's batch, which completed the course in May, has 27 students enrolled.

The catch
He and his friends discovered the 'distance mode' catch only when a classmate received a certain score card with the tag 'Directorate of Distance Education' imprinted on it. Students were incensed not only because they were being short-changed but because Garden City College, which conducts this programme under the name of "Capital College", charges a hefty Rs. 4 lakh for this two-year-course. This when the Pondicherry University Twinning Programme costs just Rs. 37,500.

'Value addition'
When contacted, a spokesperson from the 'Capital College' clarified in an email that there were two twinning courses. One was the weekend programme which stuck to Pondicherry University's prescribed fee, while the other was a "value-added programme" titled Executive Masters in Business Studies. Capital College claims that the excess fee - that is Rs. 3.6 lakh more than what Pondicherry University prescribes - is for the "value-addition".

Students claim that they were misled about the course from the start. "The Directorate of Distance Education, they said, was just an affiliating department. We were assured that no such detail will be mentioned on our final certificates," a student fumed.

Another asked, "How can they charge us Rs. 4 lakh for a correspondence course? Who will give us jobs now?" The upset youngsters pointed out that industry does not treat correspondence courses on a par with regular courses.

'Outright fraud'
Vice-Chancellor Tareen, who described the situation as an "outright fraud", clarified that Pondicherry University had not granted any permission to Garden City College to conduct a modified Twinning Programme. On the hefty fee, he said that it had not authorised any "value-added programme". Further, he pointed out that the varsity had no agreement with any 'Capital College'.

Misleading students
Garden City continues to tell students that the 'distance university' tag will not surface on their certificates. It has written to Pondicherry University asking them to drop the imprint. However, Mr. Tareen said this was "impossible" as the central varsity had no affiliating powers in Karnataka. "If they have told students that the tag will not appear on their certificates, they are clearly misleading students and defrauding them," he said.