200 guest faculties across Karnataka quit fearing probe into fake PhD/MPhil certificates

At least 200 guest faculty members at various government degree colleges in the state, have resigned fearing inquiries into fake PhD or MPhil degree certificates.

The higher education department sources said that the development comes after the department took action to verify the authenticity of the PhD and MPhil certificates submitted by the candidates while joining the job.

As there were allegations against some guest faculty members about submitting fake certificates and a few complaints were filed before the Lokayukta, the department has instructed the principals of the degree colleges to verify their documents/certificates.

“With the fear of getting caught, some guest faculty members have submitted their resignations,” said a source from the department. Most of those who resigned are from North Karnataka districts, the source mentioned.

Meanwhile, the sources confirmed that even the Lokayukta has sought a report from the department on documents submitted by a few faculty members.

According to the complaints received by the department, some candidates have submitted counterfeit PhD certificates to bypass the mandatory NET or KSET qualification mandated as per University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations.

“If the candidates have submitted a PhD certificate from a state-run university, there are no issues. But the problem is, some candidates have submitted PhD or MPhil from universities outside Karnataka, which is suspicious,” the official added.

Department commissioner Manjushree N stated, “We will soon issue a comprehensive SOP detailing the procedures for document verification and scrutiny.”

In 2017, the Karnataka Examinations Authority had barred 40 candidates from interviews for assistant professor positions after discovering that they had submitted fake PhD documents, often from universities located in neighbouring states.