In a shocking revelation that is to forever cripple the skill and creativity of growing India, more than 70 per cent of college students are found to be buying projects from outside sources for thousands of rupees to complete the work required for their academia here.

While the students themselves go in search of project centres to get a degree that requires a project, in most of the cases personnel from project centres, who enter the campus as students, approach the students from inside the campus and lure them to buy projects.

According to M Prabhu, a student from a leading engineering college in the city who bought his project from an outside source, the centres charge anywhere between Rs. 4,000 and Rs. 50,000 for a project based on how complicated it is.

On an average, these centres gain a grand total of more than Rs. 10 crore annually through the 150 engineering colleges in Coimbatore alone, whereas the number is at least half of it each in arts and science, and diploma colleges.

While some colleges check for these scam projects and do not accept them, most of the colleges accept the projects and, according to students, some teachers openly ask the students to not “buy repeated projects”.

“During the viva, we can identify if a student has done a project by himself or purchased it. We can catch them red-handed during questioning and cancel the project,” claimed a professor from a leading engineering college here.

However, according to students, they pay not only for the project but also for the special guidance the personnel at the project centres give them.

“Once the project is complete, they call us up and explain the project to us. In addition, they even conduct mock viva in the centres so as to prepare us for the original viva in college,” a student said.

To approach the centres, the students first have to contact them over phone and send their preferences about the total budget and type of project. The students are then sent a list of projects to select from.

“Not all the projects are new. Some could be duplicate but it is not easy for a college to identify projects already submitted in some other college,” a student from an engineering college in Chennai said.

Project centres make use of bright students

While the situation is such in colleges, the project centres on the other hand employ students who are capable of creating innovative projects. The students are paid a trivial amount as salary, whereas the centres gain much more from the business.

“We are given a monthly salary sometimes and it is only seasonal work. We do not know who buys our project, but our job is to simply develop ideas,” said a student who works with a project centre in Coimbatore.