The state has become a hotspot for unaccredited foreign universities that engage brokers to cash in on the huge demand for foreign degrees among students by them offering attractive commission. Several unaccredited private universities, mostly from the US, UK, Australia and Canada, have appointed “educational consultants/agents” in major cities and towns by offering them 20 per cent commission on each admission they make.
These agents in turn are duping gullible students by claiming that they can earn money from day one by taking up part-time jobs anywhere in these countries and that it is not mandatory to attend classes regularly. It is for this reason that every time any university in the US or UK was charged with a “visa fraud” the maximum number of students affected turned out to be from Andhra Pradesh.
Be it the raids on Tri-Valley University and the University of Northern Virginia last year or the latest one involving Her-guan University, 90 per cent of the students affected are from AP. The craze for admissions in these universities from AP students can be gauged by the fact that top officials from these universities visit Hyderabad before the commencement of the new academic session to lure educational consultants to offer them attractive commissions.
According to educational consultants, Jerry Wang, CEO, Herguan University, who was charged with visa fraud, had visited the city between 2007 and 2009 and appointed consultants by offering a 20 per cent cut. “These universities flout all kinds of rules. Their CPT and OPTs are not in compliance with USCIS/ Federal and DHS regulations. They do not have approved US visas. They enrol more than 1,000 students at a time, mostly from AP,” pointed out Ravi Lothumalla, educational consultant and adviser, US Admissions, regional centre for Chicago University.
After the TVU fiasco, the government has proposed “mandatory registration” of foreign universities and educational consultants with the department of higher education in order to ensure that it has the list of all the admissions made by these universities and consultants. The proposal has been gathering dust over the past year.