These centres claim to have signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with private deemed universities but offer no official documentation or admission through recognised university portals.
Hyderabad: Institutions offering unrecognised BTech-like courses in Hyderabad are allegedly misleading students and parents, collecting fees as high as `1.5 lakh per year for programmes that lack approval from regulatory bodies like the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
Operating out of apartments and co-working spaces in areas like Nanakramguda and the Financial District, these centres offer courses in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and machine learning under misleading names. They claim to offer industry-ready, IIT-like programmes without any valid university affiliation.
“My son couldn’t get into NIT, so we admitted him at an institute thinking it was a genuine alternative. They said they had tie-ups with universities and that their certificate would be recognised,” said R. Praveena, a parent from Kukatpally. “We have already paid `1.2 lakh. Now we’re not even sure if this course means anything.”
Several students said they were promised job placements and industry exposure on par with top engineering colleges. However, months into the programme, they’ve been handed training modules without clarity on their academic status or future degree validity.
“They made us attend orientation in a rented conference room. There was no campus, no official university mention — just a ‘tech school’ with a fancy pitch deck,” said V. Karthik, a student who withdrew from the course after realising it wasn’t affiliated with any recognised university.
These centres claim to have signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with private deemed universities but offer no official documentation or admission through recognised university portals. Some even advertise themselves as a “gateway to IIT-level education” for those who didn’t clear JEE.
Despite the scale of these operations, with multiple batches running simultaneously and advertisements on social media, there has been no public advisory from either the state government or the Telangana State Council of Higher Education.
“There should at least be a list of unrecognised institutions published before the admission season. We are tired of being told ‘buyer beware’ when families are being misled at this scale,” said L. Sudha, whose niece enrolled in one such programme.
Adding to this are complaints about irregularities in private engineering colleges, where B-category management quota seats are reportedly being sold for lakhs of rupees even before convenor quota admissions begin. These sales are often off the books and not declared in any centralised allotment system.
“Every year, we hear about capitation fees and donation seats, but nothing ever changes. The entire system is loaded against students from middle-class backgrounds,” said a private college lecturer who requested anonymity.
Parents and students are now demanding a full investigation into such unrecognised centres, a blacklist of names made public and the establishment of an online-only centralised system for all engineering admissions in the state. Many are also urging the state government to form a fee regulation task force to review arbitrary hikes by private colleges and investigate alleged financial irregularities in admissions.
