There are a total of 22 fake universities functioning across the country with Uttar Pradesh having as many as nine of such institutions and Delhi running a close second with six, says a UGC report.

The University Grant Commission (UGC) recently released a list of 22 fake universities that have reportedly been functioning in contravention of the UGC Act in different parts of the country.

Uttar Pradesh led the chart with nine fake universities followed by national capital Delhi that has six. One each in Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bangal have also been declared fake by the UGC.

Besides, recognition of degrees like B Ed/ M Ed awarded by the Bhartiya Shiksha Parishad, Lucknow is still sub judice.

As fake institutions are not created through legislation, many of them could be registered as societies under the Societies Registration Act with the object of running educational programmes and conferring degrees, sources said.

According to the UGC Act, only those universities that have been established under an Act of Parliament or state legislature or granted a deemed university status under Section 3 of the UGC Act are entitled to call themselves universities and confer degrees.

Contravention of these provisions of Section 22 and 23 of the UGC Act attract penalty under Section 24 of the Act.

The universities that have been declared fake in Uttar Pradesh are Mahila Gram Vidyapith/Vishwavidyalaya, Prayag (Allahabad); Indian Education Council of UP (Lucknow); Gandhi Hindi Vid yapith, Prayag (Allahabad); National University of Electro Complex Homeopathy (Kanpur); Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose University (Open University), Achaltal (Aligarh); Vishwavidyalaya, Kosi Kalan (Mathura); Maharana Pratap Shiksha Niketan Vishwavidyalaya (Pratapgarh); Indraprastha Shiksha Parishad, Institutional Area Khoda, Makanpur (Noida) and Gurukul Vishwavidyala (Vridanvan).

... contd.