Colleges plan steps to curb fake admissions

DELHI: A year after the fake admission scam surfaced in Delhi University, colleges are planning to be extra careful. Though officials from colleges insist there is no foolproof way of identifying fake documents at the time of admissions, they are still going to devise measures to avoid getting conned by aspiring but undeserving candidates. Ramjas College had identified around 36 students enrolled in first and second year after admission last year who had forged their marksheets to gain admission.The revelation had later led to busting of a gang operating on North Campus.
“There is no scientific method of identifying fake certificates and marksheets. But we will make sure that there is no such case in our college. Every student seeking admission will first have to get his documents verified by the department he is seeking admission to, followed by the central admission committee. We will appoint more teachers to approve the documents at a third level before confirming the admission,” said Pradyumn Kumar, acting principal, Hindu College. The college plans to appoint three teachers each for social science, science and commerce courses. He also suggested that marksheets should have special holograms issued by education boards.
“We are also likely to keep a watch on the entry gates to identify poachers. People running such scams often poach aspiring students outside colleges. We will put up a camera at the main gate, which will be monitored from the ICT room of the college,” said Chandrachur Singh, faculty and warden, Hindu College. Many colleges are still waiting for guidelines from the university on how to carry out verification of the documents. Admissions will begin on the same day the cutoffs are released. The first cutoff list is likely to be out on June 26.
“Colleges are supposed to verify certificates submitted by students in the general and OBC categories only. The university conducts the admissions for SC/ST and differently-abled students. We will have to ensure that the certificates are verified just before confirming admission instead of doing it after the process is over,” said P C Jain, principal, Shri Ram College of Commerce. He too said staff will be specially appointed to verify the authenticity of documents submitted for admission. “They will simultaneously verify the marksheet with the data provided by different education boards. The caste certificates will be tallied with the information available on the websites of the issuing authorities,” Jain added.
The university hasn’t formed guidelines yet to avoid a rerun of last year’s scam. “We expect colleges to verify the documents,” said J M Khurana, dean, students’ welfare.