A one-room university in Daryaganj

Updated on: Friday, January 27, 2012

Believe it or not, a 'university' is being run from a cramped 20x20-foot room on the second floor of a building at Daryaganj in Old Delhi. The owner of the establishment claims it offers BCom courses to students across the country.

Commercial University Ltd, as the place is called, is one of six 'universities' in the capital that have been branded fake by the University Grants Commission. The list was released in December 2011 and asked students to avoid these self-styled universities.

Delhi has the second highest number of such varsities in the list, after Uttar Pradesh which has eight.

A narrow staircase, sandwiched between two commercial establishments, leads to the room. The second floor has two doors, the left one leading to the 'university'.

The room is split into three by a temporary partition. A man perched on a chair at the entrance confirms this indeed is the "university". The official claims the varsity offers its own BCom degrees to students across the country and is not affiliated to any institution.

Asked about his 'university' being branded fake, its owner,VKGoel, said: "We are a private institute and we have nothing to do with UGC. I will take it up with UGC to remove our name from the list."

Asked what courses the varsity offers and from where has it got the authority to grant degrees, Goel simply said: "We give our own BCom degrees."

Describing the university's functioning, Goel said: "We have students across India and we conduct exams. They send their completed answer sheets and we evaluate them and grant them degrees." Goel refused to divulge the number of students enrolled with them.

Armed with the names and addresses of 'fake universities' in the city figuring in the UGC list, TOI next tried to trace the ADR-Centric Juridical University in Rajendra Place, New Delhi. The address given is ADRHouse, 8J, Gopala Tower, 25 Rajendra Place. But no such university or its office could be located in any of the 10 floors of the building. The address, 8J Gopala Tower, turned out to be the office of a plant protection consultant whose officials said they did notknow about any university being run from the premises.

Next stop was Varanaseya SanskritVishwavidyalaya, Jagatpuri, Delhi. Its address too turned out to be fictitious. So did the others-United Nations University, Delhi, Vocational University, Delhi and Indian Institute of Science and Engineering, New Delhi.

Times of India

A one-room university in Daryaganj

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