NEETA Ahuja breaks down just as she settles in the sofa chair."I am tired." She folds her hands and looks up at the ceiling of her rented accommodation, "I just want to be able to clear my exams and end the years of misery."

Neeta is a final year management student in a Delhi institute. She had come from Kanpur with big dreams. Bit by bit the sweetness of her dreams turned sour. She had never imagined her life would change in this manner when two years back she had excitedly torn open an envelope to find an admission offer letter in it.

Having lived in Kanpur she had little idea of Delhi and "I had no reason to disbelieve anybody,"she says. When she first saw the institute'sbuilding she was disappointed. "It looked like a house with a library and some rooms in it."There were doubts about the institute is reputation but the management assured her father that he didn it have to worry about his daughter 's safety she was now the institute 's responsibility.

"When you come from a small city you look for assurances. And my father was concerned about safety."Now when she looks back there rsquos only bitterness in her words. "They actually fooled my father with their glib talk."

The course fee was Rs. 2 lakhs which Neeta'sfather paid by taking an education loan from Allahabad Bank. "My father 's a government employee,"she adds to explain her father 'sfinancial position. This fee amount was to be disbursed in equal amounts of Rs. 25,000 every quarter for two years.

Though disillusionment had set in within six months of her admission, what caused her more despair was the harassment by the management over the college fees. Some months back the institute told her that she had not paid up her full fee and asked her for the fee record. Since the fee installments were coming straight from the bank she told the management that they should have the record. When her father hurriedly came from Kanpur to clarify the matter the institute said the fee had gone up from Rs. 2 lakhs to Rs. 4 lakhs. "Where could my father get this money from? We can 't live our lives by the whims and fancies of these greedy people."

Neeta refused to pay the additional Rs. 2 lakhs. "My sister has paid Rs. 90,000 for her BBA course, it'sa three-year course then on what basis can my institute ask Rs. 4 lakhs when it has failed to place a single student?" But soon Neeta's faculty stopped informing her about practical exams schedule it failed her in internal assessment and asked her to reappear in nine subjects. "Would an institute fail its own student in nine subjects?

At this point she chokes. "I feel embarrassed asking for money from my parents now. My father has spent enough already, and I don 't even know if I will get a job. I came to Delhi thinking my life will change. But my life'sruined.

Neeta's story is the story of millions of students who are victims of a flawed education system. Why do students like her end up in institutes that run like local grocery shops?

To find this out Careers360 commissioned an all-India survey which was conducted by consumer research firm GfK Mode. More than 900 parents and students were interviewed for the survey. And it does not come as a surprise that 27 percent of the respondents were not happy with the course or the institute they had taken up.

Among other findings, 33 percent of the interviewees said they were not satisfied with what they got in a professional college. Job assurance was another concern with 38 percent not being satisfied. But what'smost alarming is that nearly 51 percent of the respondents depend on publicity by institutions to make an admission decision.

But where is the faculty?
Bharat Bhushan Sharma, Vinay's father, too, had relied on tall claims in those adverts while deciding on an engineering college for his son. He simply wanted to see his son becoming a computer engineer. A principal himself, he was greatly disappointed to see that his son was being taught by an incompetent faculty. "They were fresh graduates, many were from the same institute!"

Vinay has finished his studies from a college in Haryana, he'sa computer engineer now but he does not have a job in hand, yet. "IIT students in their second or third year begin to aunch websites. Many don 't go for jobs at all, but start something of their own only because their aculty is competent,"says Vinay.
Mr Sharma knows that his son'sjob prospects have been compromised because his son cannot match up to the skills other students have acquired under the guidance of a competent faculty.

"If only there were research facilities at his institute he would have learnt more. These days there is so much of competition that is it is important to go beyond syllabus. But completing the syllabus was itself a challenge as there was no faculty.

The other issue is of outdated curriculum. "Very little of what we are taught comes to use when we start working. Is it not common sense not to teach a syllabus that is of no use to students?"inquires Vinay.

When Suman Koley, a hotel management graduate from Kolkata interned with the Park Hotel the senior staff there often asked: "What were you taught at the institute, you know nothing!"Such remarks were humiliating. "But they were right, we were taught nothing at the institute. At times there were no ingredients to prepare dishes which were part of the course."His voice now is tinged with anger Suman pauses on the phone to calm down. "What can you say of a hotel management institute that does not conduct practical examinations?"

But nonetheless, it is difficult to get over the shame of being incompetent. "Interns from other institutes were far more confident, they were good at their work, and all I used to hear was what were you taught?"

Perhaps this is the reason that companies have started running their own training programmes, says Vinay. "Some organisations do not take our degrees seriously only because they know that most of the institutes lack qualified faculty."But he worries about the future of the students.

"The government plans to set up more universities but where will the faculty come from? Universities in the south and the north recruit only fresh graduates because there is no experience and qualified faculty. Indian scholars and researchers prefer going to the US instead!

The magic words
When the government announced that the degrees awarded by deemed universities would qualify as diplomas Suman was shocked. "Our future was at stake."Like Suman many assume that degrees from deemed universities are recognized, or registered means that the university will issue a valid degree.

"It is natural for parents and students to get lost in the maze of words that institutes or universities carelessly use to stress on the lsquorecognized ' status,"says Mr Sharma. Same is indicated by the survey where 63 percent of the respondents got the impression that courses institutes advertise are recognized. The figure was higher for parents (42 percent) compared to students (33 percent).Now even a UGC approved college or institute sounds dubious to students, says Vinay. With corruption charges against the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) officials Vinay wonders about the worth of AICTE's affiliations. "This is shameful. Education in India is like a goods trade,"says Mr Sharma, remembering his own time when there was reverence for education.

Vinay thinks the arrest of AICTE chief might impact recruitments. "Recruiters might come to doubt the validity of our degrees. In any case, quite a few companies have little faith in the quality of India'shigher education system, which is why there'san increase in the number of company-run courses.

When Suman and his classmates protested against the principal for charging them fee which was for degree course whilst their degrees had changed to diplomas, the principal threatened them with his political links. "The principal was an extortionist.

Even Vinay and Muthukumar, an engineering student in Chennai, complained to the management about inexperienced faculty and indiscipline in their respective colleges. "But nothing happened,"Vinay says. "And nothing will happen."

Expecting the government to change things is a waste of time, says Neeta. "If the sarkar had to change things, it would have been careful about awarding affiliations to institutes. These institutes are money-making machines they are not concerned with our futures.

Neeta'slack of faith in the system is reflected in the large number of people who do not retaliate or take legal action. Nearly half the respondents who were dissatisfied with the institute decided not to react. 

100 percent job placement!
But what really breaks the spirit of many of these students is when they realize that there are no job offers waiting for them at the end of their courses. At the time of joining, Neeta and the other students in her institute were promised internship after the first semester. "But not a single student was placed with a company we had to go out on our own and find placements."

Her father helped her get placed with a Kanpur-based company. But worse was that students from her institute were applying to call centres. "If we have to work in a call centre why spend so much money to do an MBA?"

Neeta'sinstitute claimed 100 percent placement record, but now that she'sin her final year and about to appear for her final exams she has yet to see even one student being placed. "They have zero per cent placement!

Suman'slooking for a job in the hospitality industry as none of the good hotels has heard of his institute. "At the time of the admission we were promised placements in 5-Star hotels."But at the end of the course there were no campus placements, many students had to find jobs on their own.

Neeta'sadvice to students like herself, who come from small cities, is to ensure that institutes write down their claims on a stamp paper and attest it. So that when these institutes backtrack, students can show that piece of paper and call the management as liars and cheats.""I wish I had done that."
 
We want guidance!
Students fall prey to claims of job placements, foreign affiliation and foreign placements because there is no reliable source of information to guide students says Mr Sharma. According to the GfK survey, 41 percent of the respondents depended on publicity by institutions to make an admission decision.

"This mad scramble to get as many students has led private institutes to make tall claims, luring innocent students into a trap. And once these students are in these institutions they realize how severely their future'sbeen compromised,"rues Mr Sharma. Vinay cites the example of his school friends who took admissions in universities claiming they have air-conditioned rooms, state-of-the-art laboratories and many such claims. Three years later they found out that their university is yet to get an affiliation.

"Who does one turn to for help?"He asks. "There are no help lines or awareness campaigns to make students at school-level itself aware of the entire admission process."

The UGC website is in a complete state of dissaary. AICTE gives out information on its websites, but how many students living in small towns have internet access wonders Muthukumar.

Vinay's suggestion is that like public interest campaigns for dengue and malaria, both the state and the central government should start an awareness programme to guide students. And then he laughs. "It'sironical that it is the government that allows such institutes to come up in the first place!"

But now parents and students have become a little cautious, says Muthukumar from Chennai. Mr Sharma was robbed of Rs. 25,000 from an institute when he was going to various institutes for his son'sadmission. Now students like Muthukumar and Suman warn parents and students of the snares in the admission process. Perhaps which is why 51 per cent of the respondents also feel that the claims made by various institutes in the media are over-stated, thus suggesting that the adverts are misleading.

Suman, the hotel management graduate, has a suggestion for Mr Kapil Sibal, cabinet minister, Human Resource Development. "A regulatory body should send a representative to these colleges to find out if students are truly satisfied with the quality of the education. But it should be a secret poll conducted in strict confidence of the students. And if students are dissatisfied with education standards the government should terminate the institute'slicense.

However, there'sa condition that Suman lays: only an honest person should be sent for inspection.

A heap of broken dreams
Neeta says that it is heartbreaking that most of the students who fall for these claims are students from smaller towns. "Institutes take advantage of our gullibility."This grim fact also emerges from the survey where the percentage of respondents reporting false claim is observed to be much higher in smaller towns compared to bigger metros.

"The government will lay down rules and regulations, set up committees, change regulatory bodies, but nothing will change till the time the mindset of decision makers in this country changes,"says Suman who has been applying for a job for the past six months but there'sno news, yet. "Even if I get a job at the front desk, I will take it,"he says. But Vinay is not sure if the benefits of the new regulations will reach the students.

"The government forms committees, these committees discuss the proposals which then get overruled by a new set of committees. Matters are never resolved and in the process many lives get destroyed. My father went into depression seeing that for the past one year I have been looking for a job. I know my father'sis heartbroken but we try to give each other hope.

Mr Sharma lowers his head as he listens to his son, Vinay, talk about his unemployment. "I have stopped fighting the system it is so corrupt that one person cannot change it. So now I am adjusting to the bitter realities of this system."It is evident from his face that he too had dreams. He then suddenly he looks up, with a plea in his eyes. But he says nothing. 

( Names of the interviewees have been changed for confidentiality purposes) .
With inputs from Nandita Datta, Dr Nimesh Chandra, Urmila Rao and Priya Naik