Is IIT trying to bury a PhD scam?

Post graduate students of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay , are hopping mad. Reason: a corporate honcho had been trying to hire a ghost researcher for his PhD, which students feel amounts to faking the degree altogether.

The PhD students received a group email last month from Human Resource executive Sandeep Krishnan of the RPG group. It invited applications from candidates willing to help his boss Arvind Agrawal, President & Chief Executive, Corporate Development & HR, of the company complete his doctoral in ‘Transformational leadership’ from the institute.

The email read that the candidate chosen would be required to “research from database, help in designing survey, interview people and analyse data”. 

One of the PhD students, who had received the email, said that asking someone else to do everything and then walking away with the degree amounted to “academic cheating”. “This is not some undistinguished rural university where you pay up and get a degree,” said the student. “Cases like this challenge the credibility of the IITs.”

The students collectively wrote to the director and deputy director of the institute, demanding action against Agrawal. They also urged the institute to have a mechanism in place to check such fraudulent cases.

Following the complaint, IIT-Bombay initiated an internal enquiry and Agrawal’s registration was cancelled last month. However, within a couple of weeks he was reinstated after he had confessed to his deed and submitted an apology to the institute.

Surprisingly, the Dean of Academic programme, AK Singh, could not recollect the case at all. “I have to check records before commenting on this issue,” he said.

Agrawal’s guide Prof S Bhargava said that he was confident of his student’s integrity. “He is hardworking and has submitted his projects in time,” he said, adding that Agrawal had already wasted a lot of time explaining to various committees.

The students, however, were not satisfied. “It literally means that PhD degrees at IIT-Bombay are up for sale,” said a second year student on condition of anonymity. “We expected a stricter stand on the part of the institute.”

Agrawal told DNA he was innocent. “I got reinstated only after the institute was assured that there was nothing fishy in my doctoral programme”, he said. When asked why he wanted an assistant for his PhD, he claimed that he had not hired anyone. 

Some PhD students said that cases like this would make IIT degrees lose credibility. One asked: “What will Agrawal think if one of us goes to him for a job? He might believe that we too faked it.”