HYDERABAD: Students, beware! Those seeking admission into diploma and certificate courses at so called ‘business schools’ may find themselves in trouble as Osmania University (OU) has said these courses are not recognised by the university.

It has come to the notice of the university that certain colleges in Hyderabad were misleading students by running business schools offering diploma/certificate courses, which were not recognised by OU, on the premises of degree colleges affiliated to the university.

“The students and parents of such colleges are frequently approaching the university and complaining that the colleges have been collecting huge fees from the students…Running a business school on the degree college premises and collecting huge amount of fee from the students is highly objectionable and against the affiliation rules,” the varsity said in a notice, a copy of which is with TOI, to all affiliated colleges.

The university is now in the process of cracking whip on all such errant colleges.

“We have found close to 15-20 degree colleges so far that are misleading students in the name of a business school. While they have affiliation only to run a BCom/BBA course, they lure students in the name of some add-on diploma/certificate courses in management, business analytics etc. and seek additional fee,” OU director, academic audit, Ashok Naidu said.

Nearly 220 OU-affiliated colleges run B Com/BBA programmes.

Officials said in February 2020, the university had issued notices to many such errant colleges that were running unaffiliated certificate/diploma courses.

However, due to the pandemic, the university could not take action against them.

“Now, we are conducting surprise inspections to crack the whip on all such degree colleges, deceiving students in the name of a business school. Many have even changed their college names and boards offering such courses. Students should always check with the university before enrolling in any such courses,” Naidu added.

As per the notice, if the inspection committee found the functioning of business schools offering diploma/certificate courses, which OU does not offer, at the degree college, stringent action would be taken against such colleges by imposing a huge penalty or disaffiliation of the college.