Given below are some quotes from union (federal) Human Resource Development (in charge of education including higher education) minister, Smt. Smriti Irani, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smriti_Irani, from her statements to the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) of the Indian (federal) parliament, from the article, Smriti Irani Reveals 22 Fake Universities Functioning In Country, http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/smriti-irani-reveals-22-fake-universities-functioning-in-country-1403329, dated May 6th 2016:
"As per information available with the UGC, there are 22 universities (in the country) which have been listed in the UGC list of fake universities and are functioning in contravention or violation of the UGC Act, 1956 in different parts of the country"
...
[Ravi: The article states that Irani rebutted the charge that the centre (union/federal HRD ministry) was not taking action, and said that the union govt. had passed on the information to the states, and also said,]
"Law and order is a state issue and only states can take action as per federal structure. No state government has so far said it is not taking action against such universities and have instead shown inclination of taking action."
...
"We are also making attempts to have direct interaction with students besides this 'KnowYourCollege' portal to help students identify fake universities".
...
"It is an endeavour to persistently act on injustices meted out to our students through such fake institutions through protection given by the regulator". [Ravi: UGC, the University Grants Commission, http://www.ugc.ac.in/, is the regulator she seems to be referring to.]
...
[Ravi: MEA is Ministry of External Affairs (foreign ministry). About fake universities outside India which Indian students are getting trapped in, she said:]
"We are in the process of writing to MEA to ensure that all missions are appealed to give us a list of fake universities or institutions overseas so that we can appropriately inform our states to help students not get duped by such institutions."
...
[Ravi: About universities tying up with foreign universities to set up off-campus centres (& perhaps setting up off-campus centres on their own), she said:]
"Many universities have tried to set up off-campus centres which are unauthorised and UGC has taken cognisance of this fact and ordered shutdown of illegal off-campus centres"
--- end quotes of HRD minister, Irani, from ndtv.com article ---
Ravi: One of the big challenges in cleaning up the unethical practices that infest Indian academia is that many of the higher educational institutions are either directly/indirectly owned by politicians! Naturally they will resist strict action being taken against them for unethical practices. Further, it is academics who are in committees that do the evaluation and recommend action to be taken for unethical practices detected. However, these academics typically would be terrified of the political, financial as well as muscle power wielded by Indian politicians, and so few academics would dare to force strict action against unethical practices when confronted by political leaders. This, I think, is the brutal reality of Indian academia.
I did not fully realize how blessed & fortunate I was to be part of the international software industry (including companies in India which are part of this international software industry) which is quite a fair competitive environment without much of nasty political intrigue and/or financial corruption, till I associated with privately-owned Indian academia as a free service Honorary Staff/Honorary Faculty/Visiting Faculty for around nine years. The contrast between international software industry culture and Indian privately-owned academia culture (different from govt. owned & operated Indian academia) was so striking, especially in upper echelon academic administration!
At these higher levels of academic administration (Head of Dept., dean, principal/director of campus, vice-chancellor of the university, registrar etc.), in many privately owned institutions in India (though not all I guess), sycophancy, playing political one-upmanship games, turning a blind eye to injustice being meted out to those who are targeted by academic power-mongers etc. seems to be common! There are many reports of even financial corruption playing a big role in these kind of positions. In particular, I found that many academics in private Indian academic institutions are very, very fearful of academic administrators and owners/management of these private academic institutions. I think now I understand that fear as such administrators & owners/management can make life hell for any academic who they are unhappy with given hundreds of bureaucratic rules which they can apply selectively, and for an academic, especially senior academic, getting a suitable replacement job in another privately owned Indian academic institution is not that easy.
I think govt-owned Indian academia provides far more protection to its employees, both academics as well as non-teaching staff. I think there are administrative tribunals that come into play when there is a serious dispute between an academic and academic administrator(s) who has/have taken punitive action on the academic. Further, I think there are unions for both teaching staff and non-teaching staff which also provides a degree of protection from injustice being meted out by academic administrators and/or govt. heads/ministers/top-bureaucrats who are effectively the top-bosses (like owners) of the govt-owned academic institutions.
But even in such govt-owned Indian academia, I think Indian academics are quite fearful of top administrators and of top political leaders, as these persons are very influential and could make or mar their academic careers in govt. owned part of Indian academia. Mind you, this could even impact their govt. pensions and so the retirement life that they would lead. Naturally, the wise academics in Indian govt-owned academia would not want to risk their working life as well as retired life by taking on top academic administrators or top political leaders.
[I thank ndtv.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above quotes of HRD minister, Smt. Smriti Irani, from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
"As per information available with the UGC, there are 22 universities (in the country) which have been listed in the UGC list of fake universities and are functioning in contravention or violation of the UGC Act, 1956 in different parts of the country"
...
[Ravi: The article states that Irani rebutted the charge that the centre (union/federal HRD ministry) was not taking action, and said that the union govt. had passed on the information to the states, and also said,]
"Law and order is a state issue and only states can take action as per federal structure. No state government has so far said it is not taking action against such universities and have instead shown inclination of taking action."
...
"We are also making attempts to have direct interaction with students besides this 'KnowYourCollege' portal to help students identify fake universities".
...
"It is an endeavour to persistently act on injustices meted out to our students through such fake institutions through protection given by the regulator". [Ravi: UGC, the University Grants Commission, http://www.ugc.ac.in/, is the regulator she seems to be referring to.]
...
[Ravi: MEA is Ministry of External Affairs (foreign ministry). About fake universities outside India which Indian students are getting trapped in, she said:]
"We are in the process of writing to MEA to ensure that all missions are appealed to give us a list of fake universities or institutions overseas so that we can appropriately inform our states to help students not get duped by such institutions."
...
[Ravi: About universities tying up with foreign universities to set up off-campus centres (& perhaps setting up off-campus centres on their own), she said:]
"Many universities have tried to set up off-campus centres which are unauthorised and UGC has taken cognisance of this fact and ordered shutdown of illegal off-campus centres"
--- end quotes of HRD minister, Irani, from ndtv.com article ---
Ravi: One of the big challenges in cleaning up the unethical practices that infest Indian academia is that many of the higher educational institutions are either directly/indirectly owned by politicians! Naturally they will resist strict action being taken against them for unethical practices. Further, it is academics who are in committees that do the evaluation and recommend action to be taken for unethical practices detected. However, these academics typically would be terrified of the political, financial as well as muscle power wielded by Indian politicians, and so few academics would dare to force strict action against unethical practices when confronted by political leaders. This, I think, is the brutal reality of Indian academia.
I did not fully realize how blessed & fortunate I was to be part of the international software industry (including companies in India which are part of this international software industry) which is quite a fair competitive environment without much of nasty political intrigue and/or financial corruption, till I associated with privately-owned Indian academia as a free service Honorary Staff/Honorary Faculty/Visiting Faculty for around nine years. The contrast between international software industry culture and Indian privately-owned academia culture (different from govt. owned & operated Indian academia) was so striking, especially in upper echelon academic administration!
At these higher levels of academic administration (Head of Dept., dean, principal/director of campus, vice-chancellor of the university, registrar etc.), in many privately owned institutions in India (though not all I guess), sycophancy, playing political one-upmanship games, turning a blind eye to injustice being meted out to those who are targeted by academic power-mongers etc. seems to be common! There are many reports of even financial corruption playing a big role in these kind of positions. In particular, I found that many academics in private Indian academic institutions are very, very fearful of academic administrators and owners/management of these private academic institutions. I think now I understand that fear as such administrators & owners/management can make life hell for any academic who they are unhappy with given hundreds of bureaucratic rules which they can apply selectively, and for an academic, especially senior academic, getting a suitable replacement job in another privately owned Indian academic institution is not that easy.
I think govt-owned Indian academia provides far more protection to its employees, both academics as well as non-teaching staff. I think there are administrative tribunals that come into play when there is a serious dispute between an academic and academic administrator(s) who has/have taken punitive action on the academic. Further, I think there are unions for both teaching staff and non-teaching staff which also provides a degree of protection from injustice being meted out by academic administrators and/or govt. heads/ministers/top-bureaucrats who are effectively the top-bosses (like owners) of the govt-owned academic institutions.
But even in such govt-owned Indian academia, I think Indian academics are quite fearful of top administrators and of top political leaders, as these persons are very influential and could make or mar their academic careers in govt. owned part of Indian academia. Mind you, this could even impact their govt. pensions and so the retirement life that they would lead. Naturally, the wise academics in Indian govt-owned academia would not want to risk their working life as well as retired life by taking on top academic administrators or top political leaders.
[I thank ndtv.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above quotes of HRD minister, Smt. Smriti Irani, from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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