Grinding out fake certificates?

When the story of a certain mill university appeared in Nagarik, Republica’s sister publication, for the third consecutive day, its Proprietor/Chancellor Professor Dr (?) Gopal Poudel called me up and requested: "Please, don´t publish our news further."

I asked him, "Dr´sab! There are many unsolved questions surrounding your university; there is even a question mark over your own PhD degree; could you please name me the university from where you earned your degree? What about your thesis and dissertation guide?"

There was a long pause at the other end. He tried to persuade me that he is a genuine educator and wants to do something good for the country. He further added that he has been facing stumbling blocks because people are jealous of him.

I again insisted him to name his university. He was reluctant to name it. He even went to the extent of saying that he forgot the name of his university. After a brief pause, he said, "luckily, I´ve the certificate in my suitcase, I´ll show it you."

I just could not buy the argument that he had forgotten the name of his alma mater. The glorious university days never leaves our hearts and minds. The hardships and fun time at university makes us nostalgic. Professors and fellow students are the real darlings of our life. But, if you have bought a mill university degree, then, well, things are different!

The hardships and fun time at university makes us nostalgic. Professors and fellow students are the real darlings of our life. But, if you have bought a mill university degree, then, well, things are different!

"A so-called university named as Greenford International University (GIU) has been in the Nepali language press since a couple of weeks. It has been trying to register at regulatory bodies of the Government of Nepal. Without fully complying with legal norms, it conducted a convocation ceremony and offered honorary degrees to influential political leaders, popular artists, media owners and some foreigners who were presented as members of parliaments of many countries.

The convocation has helped to boost the image of this mill university. The funny part is that the faculty members are the degree holders of the same university. The proprietor of the university doesn´t mention his own alma mater in the document submitted to the Ministry of Education.

GIU conducted the convocation drama in a very professional way. The glittering red color convocation gown and esteemed awardees of the grand convocation gave a sense that it is almost at par with universities like Harvard, Oxford or Cornell. See the name itself, Greenford. Doesn´t it sound like a first-class university? Indeed, it can easily tickle the imagination of a lot of people. In addition, this kind of university helps those who are desperate to put an honorific in their name such as Dr or professor but are reluctant to put in the efforts needed to earn that.

After the news was carried in Nagarik, famous artist duo of our country Madhan Krishna Shrestha and Hari Bansha Acharya, popularly known as Maha jodi, extended their apology to the public and their well-wishers for accepting the honorary PhD from GIU. Both of them have also requested the government bodies to investigate about this so-called university. Following in their footsteps, a media owner also declared that he had returned the PhD degree. Until now, however, our two political leaders Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar and senior leader of CPN-UML K P Sharma Oli who had also been conferred ‘honorary’ degrees are conspicuously silent. Perhaps, their love of being called Dr supersedes their responsibility of being public figures.

Such mill universities aside, what is really worrying is that our country is entering into a quagmire of counterfeit certificates. When bosses of companies, leaders and heads of education institutes themselves have such certificates, they would willingly take people with certificates of such bogus certificates into their fold. These kinds of people would ruin the country. They could establish a syndicate to facilitate giving such certificates. Even in the GIU case, one senior police officer Thakur Mohan Shrestha is also involved as ´partner assistant´. There might be many more influential persons involved in running this mill university.

The GIU website claims that Ministry of Education Nepal, Tribhuvan University Nepal (the website misspells Tribhuvan as Tribhuban), CTEVT Nepal and many more foreign institutions and universities are their friends and partners. The list is long: Mount Allison Malaysia, Concordia University USA, HULT USA, Trading Asia Link Malaysia, MSC Malayasia, Oral Roberts University USA, Kolej Gemilang Malaysia, North West USA, UBI Brussels Belgium, Brickfields Asia College Malaysia, Net Academy Malaysia, Maharishi Markandeshwar University, India, etc.

The long list of friends and partner of GIU is sufficient to persuade anyone that it at par with Ivy League universities. According to the website of this university, it has been registered by the Government of Federation of Belize, Central America. However, it had organized the convocation mentioned before as a US university. A guy named Ali Muddin Anwar was falsely presented as a Sri Lankan Member of Parliament and awarded an honorary PhD degree.

All this shows that there is a racket in education. If you have a certificate even from bogus institutions and organizations, that helps you to lie among the people.

For example, take the recent case of UCPN (Maoist) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal who showed at Tribhuvan International Airport a certificate that he had purportedly gone to receive in Malaysia. Dahal´s July 18, 2010 dated certificate with full of silly mistakes by Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation reads: "We are honor to appointment Mr. Prachanda Path as the Co-Chairman of Asia Pacific Exchange & Cooperation Foundation." Now, do you think that it is a genuine certificate? However, the language is almost similar to the audiotape conversation between Mr Krishna Bahadur Mahara and the allegedly Chinese man. If Dr Poudel´s university can give mill degrees, why can´t an organization called Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation?

The problem is that there is a lack of enthusiasm in the regulatory mechanisms to validate such certificates. And do we even need to talk about our leaders? Give them any kind of certificate or degree and they accept it without further query, oblivious of the fact that they are public figures and that they have a responsibility not to mislead the unsuspecting public.

GIU Chancellor Professor Dr (?) Poudel sought appointment with my colleague the next day at 12 pm. He did not show up for more than one week. Even he redirected his university website. So, now, we cannot even access his previous website. Meanwhile, I am eagerly waiting to get a glimpse of Poudel´s PhD degree.