Mumbai: A student who passed his MCom by correspondence from a university in South India was refused admission for the LLB course in Mumbai University, because he did not have a bachelors degree, which is an essential pre-requisite for admission to the course.

The common man may wonder how a person can get a masters degree without doing his graduation, but there are several universities which offer people with a 12th standard passing certificate, the opportunity to directly appear for a masters degree in a course, that too by a process of distant education!

The incident exposes the sad state of affairs in the system of education in the country, with the authorities being a mute spectator to the shenanigans of politically well-connected people running universities which offer degrees and diplomas with ease. With owning a degree a must for facing the competitive world and getting a job, students who are offered these courses find them both alluring and attractive.

The story of the setting of more than 100 universities on a single street in Jharkhand is well known and indicates the extent of the racket in education in India.

The average consumer cannot be blamed for believing that the huge ads published in newspapers are his gateway to achieving a degree with little or no effort. Some ads offer as many 100 courses in all fields. What most of them do not know, however, is that many of these diplomas and degrees have very little or no value in the industry.

Laws enunciated by the Universities Grants Commission, All India Council for Technical Education and the like, and the warnings printed in newspapers by these bodies about the bogus degrees and colleges floating around make little or no difference to the modus operandi of the big-time players in education who continue to fleece the student community.

Questions are also being raised about the method in which degrees are issued to students in the distance education system. When 75% attendance is compulsory for all students in all branches of education in the mainstream colleges, what is the logic of allowing a class of students to obtain a degree without attending a single class or educational session?

 Is it then any wonder that foreign universities scoff at our degrees and insist on basic English tests before admitting students for courses in their colleges?

Surprisingly, such unfair trade practices and cheating seem to have the blessings of the various powers in the field of education, and regulatory authorities are least interested in bringing defaulters to book.

Source : DNA