UK lecturers spying on Indian students?

As part of new rules to tighten the students visa system and prevent its abuse,academic staff are required to report to immigration authorities if non-EU students are absent from classes or if their activities arouse suspicion.

The Universities and College Union said “pressure on staff to spy on their students” would create an environment of mistrust on campus and risked jeopardising the crucial relationship between staff and students.

Universities and colleges are now required to report suspicious or bogus students or risk being stripped of their licence to sponsor students from outside the European Union,who pay more than three times the fee paid by UK students.

The union said the news that thousands of foreign students are being reported to immigration officials each year could make the UK a less attractive place to study for overseas students.

UCU general secretary,Sally Hunt,said: “The relationship between staff and students is an incredibly important one that is built on trust.

Fears that lecturers are spying on students,whether they are or not,risks jeopardising that relationship”.

The country’s accounting watchdog CAG has already pulled up the Navratna company for delays in acquisition plans and said it has resulted in cost overrun to the tune of Rs 2,100 crore.

The document said that despite the critical health of SCI,its management over the last 6-8 months forcefully argued for a series of projects,most of which have not been approved by the Board on the advise of independent directors.

“These project proposals appear to be driven by the prospective JV partners which would invariably have management control. The motivation appears to be either to draw upon the large cash reserves of SCI and/or to deploy SCI vessels as part of SCI equity with valuation done in a non-transparent matter,” it said.

Elaborating further,the Ministry said in once such proposal for a joint venture (JV) in the Europe-America-Africa sector,the proposal envisaged procurement of 12 new vessels from China at a price almost USD 10 million more than the current market price.

The firm reported a net loss of Rs 5.80 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal against a net profit of Rs 191 crore in the same period last year. The company reported a net profit of Rs 567.30 crore for the last fiscal.

Earlier this month,the Comptroller and Auditor General had slammed Air India’s decision to acquire 111 planes through debt as “a recipe for disaster” and said it should have raised alarm in the government.

Terming the move for getting of a “large number” of planes as “risky”,CAG said the aircraft acquisition had “contributed predominantly” to the airline’s massive debt liability of Rs 38,423 crore as on March 31 last year.