Indian students deported by the US authorities from San Francisco seem to be an unlucky lot with the US authorities launching an investigation into the accrediting agency and not the two varsities in question.
A report in the ‘Inside Higher Ed’, a popular publication that focuses on higher education in the USA, revealed that Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CPFB), a regulatory body in the USA, has received several complaints about the poor accreditation standards of Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS).
According to the report, the CFPB issued a Civil Investigative Demand on August 25, 2015 to investigate the accreditation granted by the ACICS to ‘for profit’ colleges. It also sought information on all the colleges that ACICS accredited over the last few years. The ACICS challenged the investigation, but the CFPB moved court and got an order in its favour.
The investigation was started on December 11 this year. G. Narsi Reddy, a GRE trainer in the city, says the problem for students perhaps started here. The two institutions in question – Silicon Valley University and the North Western Polytechnic College – were also accredited by the ACICS. The very fact that ACICS is being probed has cast a shadow on these institutions.
Trainers like Mr. Narsi Reddy caution the students that they should avoid such institutions as they may face problems in the H1B processing as well. He says of the 65,000 H1B visas given every year, 6,800 are only for citizens of Singapore and Chile. So, about 58,200 visas are reserved for others. An additional quota of 20,000 visas is reserved for people who complete their studies in the US varsities.
The main problem, however, is that students studying in ‘for-profit’ colleges are not eligible to apply for H1B in the 20,000 quota as only graduates of Public and Non-Profit universities are eligible under this. Interestingly, most of the ‘for-profit’ colleges are accredited by the ACICS, Mr. Reddy says.
Getting a US student visa has become relatively easy over the last few years thus motivating several ‘unqualified’ and ‘mediocre’ students to get into the US varsities, feels Ravilochan Singh, Managing Director of Globalreach and an education advisor.
Mr. Ravi, who has expertise in Australian education, feels Australia, Canada and the UK went through the correction and it’s time the US market too gets corrected.
