Degrees not verified, MBU students suffer

Tribune News Service

Bhanu P Lohumi

Shimla, January 18

Genuine students of Manav Bharti University (MBU) are having a harrowing time as their degrees are not being verified.

Singapore visa cancelled

I am stuck in India for the past two years after the Singapore embassy cancelled my visa on the pretext the I submitted fake degree documents. — Bandana, A Bilaspur resident

“I am stuck in India for the past 20 months after the Singapore embassy cancelled my visa on the pretext that I submitted fake degree documents,” says Bandana, a student of the first batch admitted to the university who completed her B.Sc (Chemistry) in 2012. She is a resident of Naina Devi in Bilaspur district.

“I along with my husband and children lived in Singapore and had come to visit my family in India. I was scheduled to fly back in April 2020 but I received a call from the Singapore embassy that my visa had been cancelled for submitting fake documents (degree). The embassy officials said that there was no response to calls and emails sent to the university for the verification of documents,” Bandana says.

“Barred from entering Singapore, I was compelled to shift my daughter, who was studying in Class I, back to India. Now, I am not even getting tourist visa, as they have put my name on the black list and my husband had to seek transfer. He is working from home at present,” she rues. “I have written a number of emails to the university authorities, government officials, Chief Minister and the Prime Minister but to no avail,” she adds.

This is not the only case. A 50 year-old-student from Solan, who took four years leave without pay from Government College to pursue B.Tech to improve her qualification, is going through mental agony as uncertainty looms large over her career.

“I am applying for the job of computer teacher for which a document of the Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Application (PGDCA) is required,’’ says Rahul Joshi, another student who completed his course in 2011.

“I was enrolled in Matra Chaya Institute (examination centre of the MBU) and received my LLM mark sheet. However, no degree had been awarded to me,” says Satinder Singh from Mathura. “If I had the degree I could have got the job of assistant professor,” he adds.

Left in the lurch, students are desperate to get their degrees verified as employers are questioning their credentials and jobs are at stake. The genuine students are urging the university for provisional degrees so that they could apply for jobs or pursue higher studies. The Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission (HPPERC) has received about 180 RTI applications and letters from students, mostly for the verification of their degrees.

Around 110 pass-out students of MBU, under the banner of Justice for Manav Bharti Students’ Association, have urged the commission to safeguard the interests of genuine students, whose certificates and degrees are not being verified and authenticated due to the ongoing probe into the fake degree scam. They have requested the commission to device some interim mechanism for the verification of their documents.

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