dna exclusive: Malaysia university running in India since 4 years unrecognised: University Grants Commission

Malaysia-based Asia-e-University (AeU), which has been running its business in India since 2009, offering several undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD courses through the distance education mode, is not recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

A public notice issued by the commission on February 12 has left 20,000 Indian students in the lurch.

The Kuala Lumpur varsity's India operations are based in Madurai, with over 140 study centres across India. The university offers courses in 31 Asian countries.

The notice issued by the Distance Education Bureau (DEB) of UGC reads, "It is hereby informed to the public at large that Asia-e-University, Malaysia is not recognised by UGC for offering any program through distance education mode in India. The public and students are informed that any qualification awarded by this university will not be valid for appointments in central and state government jobs."

The move shows the state of the Indian higher education system and the functioning of the HRD ministry and UGC, who didn't take cognisance all this time while AeU was set up and was going about its business. The admissions are done twice a year and the course fee ranges between Rs20,000 and Rs25,000 a year.

The varsity has over 15 study centres in Maharashtra, including one in Mumbai. Over 300 postgraduate students in the city are studying MSc in behavioural science & managerial skills, counselling & psychotherapy, MA in leadership and international business, among others.

Deputy director of DEB prof Devkant Rao said, "We have never given them approval. The notice is self-explanatory."

Another UGC officer said, "Approval to a foreign university is out of our ambit."

The AeU website claims to have gotten approval from the Distance Education Council (DEC) way back in 2009. DEC, under the HRD ministry, was a regulatory body for distance education in India till December 2012. The council was dissolved and, since then, all regulatory functions have been vested with the DEB. The university also claims to have approval from the 'Association of Commonwealth of Universities'.

Students, who had been unaware of the development, expressed their shock. "I enrolled here so that I could have a foreign university degree. Why doesn't the Indian government get its act together instead of allowing these centres to cheat us?" rued a student.

The AeU termed the UGC move as "unfortunate and wrong". "Our paperwork is complete. The UGC has wrongly issued this notice. We have now sent them all our papers. They have assured us to issue a clarification," said an official from the university's headquarter in Madurai, who identified himself as Sarvanand. E-mails sent to chairman Dr Velmurugan and the registrar went unanswered.

Dr R Parmeshwaran, the coordinator of the Mumbai learning centre in Goregaon, also slammed UGC's move. "The UGC has made a mockery of higher education. The then HRD minister Kapil Sibal had visited Asia-e-University in Malaysia in 2009. The approval came from the top level after a meeting between prime ministers of both countries. What else we are supposed to do?"