Another fake US varsity closes leaving Indian students stranded

Closure of another bogus American university has left hundreds of students, many of them from India's Andhra Pradesh state, scrambling for options for continuing their studies.

The University of Northern Virginia was ordered to cease operations and close immediately July 16, after the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia revoked the college's license to operate.

UNVA operated on the ground floor of an office building in Annandale, a Washington suburb in neighbouring Virginia, for 15 years, according to the Washington Post. It remained unaccredited for the last five years and failed four audits by the state for not hiring "qualified faculty."

The council said once it has received the student academic and financial records from the university it would communicate with students "regarding the impact of revocation and currently enrolled students' options for continuing education."

Students who are in the US on FI visas were also advised to make inquiries regarding immigration, Optional Practical Training (OPT) and the SEVP/SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Programme and Information System) from the US Department of Homeland Security at (202) 282 -8000 or via its website at www.dhs.gov.

In a 2011 raid on UNVA federal officials found, almost exclusively enrolled foreign students from India whom the college had helped obtain visas by exploiting loopholes, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The next month, UNVA's chancellor David Lee resigned following separate reports of his kinky personal life.

Lee had advertised his private basement sex dungeon on a BDSM website, saying he was seeking "attractive submissive" women, according to The Smoking Gun, which posted photos from Lee's profile on the site on Aug 1, 2011.

Many Indian students had transferred to UNVA from Tri-Valley University, another bogus university in California, that was shut down by immigration authorities in 2011 for alleged visa fraud.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)