Following pressure from defrauded students, the government has begun listing the “fake” institutions operating in the free zones of the United Arab Emirates and the students victimised by them.

The victims, organised under the banner “Scan the Scammers”, had been requesting that the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology create a portal to collect information for an online database.

Based on the request, the consular department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has developed a portal to record the details of the victims and agencies involved in cheating them.

Students can fill up a form providing their name, the consultancy through which they moved to the UAE, the college or university they joined, and the amount they spent. Having integrated data was necessary to ascertain the number of victims and the institutions involved.

Issuing a statement to inform about the portal, the Nepali Embassy in Abu Dhabi said some education consultancies in Nepal have been sending students to various universities, colleges, and professional training institutes established and operated in the free zones of the UAE.

“Complaints have been received that many of these institutions are not operating to meet the required standards, are not affiliated with the foreign universities they claim to be linked with, lack their own physical infrastructure, run in rented apartments for a few months before switching to online classes, and fail to provide services and facilities as promised,” reads the statement.

Those who claim to be affected include students currently residing in the UAE as well as those who returned home without completing their courses. Dozens of students left for home after they did not get the promised employment in the UAE, their classes were not conducted and the colleges and universities were found not meeting the required standards.

“As requested for the collection of details of such cases, the Consular Department has developed a portal. Students are asked to fill out the update form,” reads the notice.

The victims, who have returned home after finding they were duped, say they are happy that the government, after much lobbying, has started creating a database.

“There are 229 members in an informal network we have created. The actual number of the cheated students is in the hundreds,” said Biswajeet Kumar Yadav, a student who went to an Ajman-based college for PhD and returned after finding that he had been duped. Yadav is also a coordinator of the group of students campaigning for justice.

Following the complaints, the education ministry, starting on November 14, has tightened the process to grant No Objection Certificates to the institutions not recognised by the Commission of Academic Accreditation of the UAE government. The certificates are being issued only for the accredited institutions, according Birendra Jung Thapa, chief of the NOC department at the ministry.

Several Nepal-based education consultancies, acting as agents for bogus universities and colleges, sent hundreds of students to those training institutions, assuring them of international university degrees. They were also assured of part-time jobs, claiming their earnings are enough to cover their living expenses and partially cover education costs. However, it was only after entering the academic institutions that the students realised they had been cheated.

The fake institutions are often set up in free zones like Ajman, Sharjah, or Dubai. Free zones make it easy to start a business with a simple trade licence, but they do not check if the institution is a real university. This allows them to operate without proper oversight from the UAE’s education authorities, Yadav claims.

Students say the training institutes branded themselves as universities showcasing huge infrastructures and well equipped classes on the web sites and in advertisements. However, the claimed infrastructure and facilities do not exist.

Many of these so-called universities or colleges operate from just three or four small rooms, and students are instructed to attend classes online.