Agents cheat students in Goa with fake degrees, exorbitant fees

Anita Rodrigues (name altered) broke down, a couple of years back, after going to the Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) regional centre at Porvorim and discovering that her several postgraduate degrees obtained through 'correspondence' and 'external' modes by paying thousands of rupees were not valid. There are several such requests from the police every year for Ignou to check certificates, which prove to be always forged.

The diplomas are sometimes sold at a fee by scammers to students who are entirely aware it is a forgery, but, in most of the cases, the forged diplomas are dispensed by 'agents' who present themselves as authorized centers to provide 'correspondence' or 'external' degrees.

"Students ought to be aware that the terms 'correspondence' and 'external' are old-fashioned. There is no such thing anymore.". There are a few who claim to be centres and offer students a roster of universities from where they can award a degree. Students need to be suspicious if someone, for example, claims to be able to award a degree of Sikkim or Jammu university. If Goa University is not able to give a degree to a student who is sitting in Sikkim or Jammu, then how can it be done the reverse way," Ignou centre regional director G Shrinivas expressed.

Only a university like Goa University set up by an Act in the assembly and Ignou set up by an Act in the Parliament are able to give degrees, he stated.

Unless they send you to that university to respond to an exam in Sikkim or Jammu, for instance, they cannot award a degree to you. Most come here to complete their masters degree and when we teach them that their graduation degree is a bogus one, they are flabbergasted. 'Agents' also tell students that they can respond to all three years' exams for degree program at one time.". This idea of allowing answering of exams for all years at one go was halted by University Grants Commission in 1989," said Shrinivas.

Rodrigues lost years of answering doing her postgraduate programme again through Ignou, impacting her career development. She found out how she was cheated only after visiting Ignou to do her doctorate.

Now, it is not correspondence or external, there remains only open and distance education in operation. Most of the universities such as Shivaji, Annamalai, etc used to be providing programmes in correspondence and external mode in other states previously. But during the 2000s, the UGC halted this and mentioned that universities have no control outside their states.".

Meanwhile, Rodrigues has managed to finish here postgraduate and doctorate courses through Ignou.

Still, 'agents' have been found openly scamming students running offices all over Goa, assuring 'external' degrees.

"Some of them provide the admission to Ignou programmes through our website itself. Then they extort the student Rs 25,000 for a graduate course available at Rs 5,000 fee at Ignou.". They incur fee for each assignment, project or dissertation submission, which is free of cost. 'Agent' then submits the assignment free of cost to Ignou centres. Students tend to realise after they lose thousands of rupees and lots of valuable years," Shrinivas added.