erica’s perfect academic dream is rooted with flaws. Foreign students arriving into the US to pursue higher studies are now bearing the brunt of giving into its universities’ tall promises. After the killing of Prasanth Goinka, a student of Indian origin, the investigation revealed much deeper and dangerous problem. The university, at which Goinka was enrolled in, San Jose’s International Technological University was an unaccredited entity. Furthermore, the student visa that was issued by the university to Goinka was a fake. The revelation not only ignited protests in India but cast a hanging sword on America’s education-system as a whole.
Shocking Truths: An investigation run by the Bay Area News Group revealed that Goinka – and a host of thousands of other foreign students enrolled in schools in the area – should not have been in US in the first place. Firstly, most universities in San Jose are unaccredited and the students have fallen prey to the universities’ claims of acquiring them with the prized US student visa. The newspaper’s probe led it to uncover another two universities – Sunnyvale’s Herguan University and the Tri-Valley University – running similar shams. Owing to their unaccredited status, none of the universities have the legal right to assists pupils in acquiring student visas.
Federal Faux: After the 9/11 episode – all the terrorists entered the country on a student-visa – one would have expected the government to tighten its immigration laws. And it did. The Department of Homeland Security was set up to overlook and toughen visa procedures in the country. However, the same agency is now in question for placing these universities in the list of schools international students can consult for pursuing studies in the US. Tri-Valley was one the list, even as the Feds raided the campus in January after receiving a slew of complaints of visa-fraud. The breakdown put the future of almost 1500 international students in a legal limbo.
Trading Dreams For Money: As the raids on the Tri-Valley campus continued more troubling truths tumbled out. By the look of things, the university, in spite of its unaccredited status, the was paid millions of dollars by incoming international students for a student visa and the authority to remain in the country. Of course, the university’s sham has put the entire education system to shame, and uncovered the new modus operandi of universities of mint money.