KARACHI: Despite being declared illegal and fake by the High Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC), 36 degree awarding institutes, universities and sub-campuses are active in fleecing students in the name of education across the province, Daily Times has learnt. The list of unrecognised and fake institutes is available on the HEC’s website. Thousands of students have enrolled with these institutions. However, these universities did not inform the students about the status of their recognition at the time of admission. Ironically, there is no authority to deal with non recognized and fake educational institutions being run in the province. Apart from this, some of the public sector universities are also violating the HEC rules as these do not qualify the commission’s criteria. Degrees of those students who complete their education at these public sector universities cannot be verified. Government has made rules and regulations for the establishment of degree awarding institutes both in the public and private sectors. Therefore, it is the responsibility and duty of students and their parents to check the recognition of the universities with their respective managements before admission. “Some institutes which are not chartered by the government are openly advertising their programs and even participating in educational exhibitions but there is no one to question them”, Professor Dr Shahana Uroj Kazmi, Vice Chancellor of Dadabhoy Institute of Higher Education said. Some unscrupulous people have even set up colleges and universities in the streets for earning money from students. In fact, they play with the future of the students. There should be a proper law to deal with the fake colleges and universities, she added. It is not enough on the part of HEC to just put the names of fake and unrecognized institutions on its website. “There are two types of educational institutes which are misguiding the students. Some are even chartered by the government but do not fulfill the HEC criteria. HEC does not recognise such institutes. Other type of institutions are neither chartered by government nor are they recognized by the HEC but are still offering degree programs, ” Professor Dr Najamul Arfeen, the president of Teachers Association at Urdu University said. The Higher Education Commission is the only authority for recognition of universities and it is the responsibility of the commission to tackle with such fake and illegal degree awarding institutes. Unfortunately, the HEC does not have the capacity to close down any illegal institute, he further said. There are several public sector universities, which run their sub-campuses without a proper permission from the HEC across the country including Urdu University’s Sialkot and Lahore campuses. On a condition of anonymity, some officials of the HEC’s regional directorate said that it does not have any force to take action against the fake educational institutes. HEC has been trying to inform the general public through advertisements, displaying banners and updating HEC’s website each year. However, if students or parents have sufficient evidence against any fake institute they can approach the Federal Investigation Agency for action. “I am not allowed to comment on policy matters. However, HEC has the authority to verify the degrees of the recognised educational institutions only, “Javid Ali Memon, Regional Director of HEC said.