Fake Degrees Prompt India Led by Infosys to Build an Ivy League

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-12/fake-degrees-prompt-india-led-by-infosys-to-build-an-ivy-league.html

Commercial University Ltd. in New Delhi offers degrees in commerce, one of hundreds of private colleges trying to fill an education gap as India’s growth creates a middle class eager for its children to succeed.

The operation doesn’t have a campus, nor are its degrees recognized by the government. Commercial University, based in a post office building between the capital and the sprawling streets of the old city, is one of more than a dozen institutions labeled as “fake” in an alert on the website of the University Grants Commission, India’s college regulator.

Bogus degrees are a symptom of the crisis in India’s higher education that prompted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to promise 1,000 new universities and hire S. Ramadorai, former chief of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., to upgrade the system. Failure to prepare students for India’s new industries risks squandering the nation’s biggest competitive advantage -- the youngest population among the world’s top 10 economies -- and has forced companies led by Infosys Ltd. (INFO) to build their own colleges.