President of Adventist University in India Accused of Fake Ph.D.
11 April 2018 | The President of Spicer Adventist University in the western state of Maharashtra, India, has been accused of holding a fake PhD.
According to India’sThe Tribune newspaper, three officials at Spicer Adventist University stand accused of using fake PhD credentials to obtain their positions at the institution.
The Tribune indentifed the Spicer employees accused of holding the fake degrees as Noble Prasad Pilli, R Jeyam and Chacko M Paul. Spicer’s website lists Noble Prasad Pilli as Vice Chancellor, the highest administrative role in the university. The Adventist denomination’s Office of Archives, Statistics and Research lists Pilli as president of the institution. Spicer lists Rathnasamy Jeyam as the Chief Finance Officer and Chacko Paul as the Dean of the School of Arts & Social Sciences.
The alleged fake PhD degrees come from Manav Bharti University in Himachal Pradesh, a northern state in the country.
The Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission has filed a police case against the alleged fake PhD holders. Udayan Raje Bhonsle a member of Parliament from Pune, the city in which Spicer is located, wrote a letter to the Himachal Government on January 11, 2018 about the alleged irregularities.
The Registrar of Manav Bharti University confirmed that the degrees were fake. This was also confirmed by the secretary of the commission who is seeking punitive action against the holders of the degrees in question.
Manav Bharti University had received a total of 145 letters from the Department of Higher Education. All of these allegedly referenced degrees which the university declared to be fake as they had not been issued by the institution. The university added that it had closed down its PhD program.
Spicer Adventist University is an Adventist institution of higher learning in Pune, India. It was established in 1915 and has over 1000 students. It is the flagship Adventist educational institution in the country.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in India claims 1.5 million members.
