How MSU's private collaborators swindled money from unsuspecting students

Sruthisagar Yamunan and C Shivakumar

CHENNAI: That private institutions flout rules and charge excessive fee is an accusation leveled often by students and parents. But when it comes to the case of the distant courses offered by the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University (MSU) through technical collaboration between 2008 and 2011, such allegations have been uttered true, thanks to the efforts of the CAG.

Official documents with Express reveal that several private collaborators, with whom the MSU entered into agreements, fleeced students by charging fee that was, in some cases, more than 40 times the structure approved by the varsity.

Take the sub centre of Ygen Management Consulting Services in Bangalore, for example. The audit note by the CAG office says this organisation collected Rs 4,70,000 per student for the MBA course as against MSU's fee of Rs 10,230. "Y Gen admitted 506 students for MBA courses during 2010-2011 and collected an excess fee totaling Rs 23.26 crore for this course alone during 2010-2011," observes the report.

MET Corporate B School, the sub centre of ICE Mumbai, went a step further and charged Rs 5.50 lakh for MBA course as against Rs 10230. This institution enrolled 19 students in 2010-2011 and earned excess fee totaling Rs 1,02 crore.

There were also innovative ways employed by private parties. Sri Sai Institute, Punjab collected Rs 800 per month towards tution fee as "miscellaneous fee" in addition to the University fee structure. The institute admitted 841 students for BA Course (3 years) during 2010-2011. The tution fee, thus, worked out to Rs 28800 per student, earning an excess fee of Rs 2,43 crore.

Documents also point out that several institutions also failed to pay the registration fee for the courses as mandated by the University and therefore earned all the profits without any significant investment.