Tri-Valley University is only one of many dubious and unaccredited universities in the US that are duping foreign students — especially Indians — reported a leading US journal on higher education. The report was based on an investigation carried out after the TVU scam in January, involving Indian st udents who were trapped in the US, following the university getting implicated in immigration fraud charges.

The journal claimed the University of Northern Virginia, the International Technological University (ITU) and Herguan University were among those that had been following a TVU-like business model. But they are not known to be facing any federal action.

“These universities are names that kept cropping up in our investigation, and so caught our attention. The investigation raises questions about how strictly the federal government is being able to ensure the quality of institutions it allows to admit foreign students,” Karin Fischer, one of the journal’s reporters, told HT.

The Washington DC-based Chronicle of Higher Education — the most widely read higher education publication in US academic circles — said in the report published this week that a combination of “lax” regulations and “chinks in the student visa system” were allowing these institutions to dupe students.

The University of Northern Virginia claimed it was the most popular American university for foreign students, but was comfortable remaining largely unknown, according to the report.

Dubious, non-accredited universities use loopholes in the rules to get permission from the authorities to admit foreign students, the journal said, adding that they falsely claimed that their credits were recognised by other accredited universities.

“Genuine, accredited universities complained to us that their students were leaving for dubious institutions after arriving in the US,” Fischer said.