Students find Karjat’s Universal Business School degree not valid, file complaints

Mumbai: After spending over ₹18 lakh for a three-year Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) course, students from the Universal Business School (UBS) at Karjat interested in further education are facing problems with the equivalency of their degree. The university recently received approval from the state government and has now been named Universal AI university.

UBS started the BBA course in affiliation with a UK-based university in 2013 and has produced 268 graduates so far. On April 18, some students filed a complaint with the office of the joint director of higher education in Panvel, following which a team conducted an initial inquiry. The interim report states that a detailed inquiry is necessary to probe questions raised by the students like whether UBS had approval by any institute before starting this foreign university-affiliated course.

Sushrut Hate, who graduated in 2019 and is now preparing for the UPSC exam, was recently shocked to hear that his BBA degree was not valid for an Indian civil service job. “I spent over ₹15 lakh on my programme,” he said. “When I approached the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) for a degree equivalency, they refused as this institution is not registered with them.” Hate had no idea that the institute had approval from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for its MBA programme but not for the BBA programme.

Akhil Parmar, a 2020 graduate, has also filed a complaint with the higher education department. “I spent more than ₹18 lakhs on this,” he said. “When I learned that the degree was not valid in India for further education, I wrote to the institute, but they did not respond. I run my own business, but most of my friends are facing problems with their further education and jobs, so I filed a complaint along with other students.”

Vivek Rathod, a Mumbai-based student who filed the first complaint in 2017, said he was in the second batch of the BBA course. “I cleared the CLAT exam to pursue law but during the admission process, I learned that this degree is not valid for LLB,” he said. “I immediately approached AICTE and AIU but got no response. Then I started working in a financial company. When I learned recently that some current students were filing complaints, I joined them so that they could get justice.”

The students also filed a complaint with the Karjat police and Superintendent of Police (SP) Raigad, requesting them to investigate the matter. SP Somnath Gharge called the students and office-bearers of the institute to discuss the issue last week. “The higher education director is the right person to judge this complaint,” he said. “We have forwarded the complaint to the concerned department to examine if this comes under forgery or any other crime and decide whether or not to register an FIR.”

Hrishikesh Joshi, state secretary of the BJP’s Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha, has also written a letter to the higher and technical education minister Chandrakant Patil, requesting him to stop UBS from offering the BBA course.

Professor Tarundeep Singh Anand, founder and chairman of UBS, claimed that the university’s BBA degree had equivalency from World Education Services, and allowed students to pursue MBA programmes at top international universities. “Besides, the students have excellent careers in top multinationals in India and abroad,” he said. “The prospectus explicitly states the pathways in management possible after completion of the course. But one percent of students are keen on equivalency, and hence we are now approaching the Association of Indian Universities for institutional equivalency.”