“Fake Internship Mafia” Exploiting Students: E-Learning Entrepreneur Writes To Minister Demanding Regulation
Kozhikode, Kerala: A prominent Kerala-based e-learning entrepreneur has issued a scathing indictment of the state’s higher education internship system, alleging that well-intentioned academic policies have degenerated into a lucrative “mafia” that financially exploits desperate students.
In a detailed open letter addressed to the Higher Education Minister of Kerala Roji M. John, Mohammad Ajmal C—the Founder and CEO of X and Y—exposed structural loopholes, outdated institutional regulations, and commercial rackets that he claims are actively sabotaging the state’s youth. He warned that while young people are already migrating abroad in droves for better prospects, the local ecosystem is failing them by locking real opportunities behind obsolete rules.
Read Also: UP Man Seeks To Change Birth Year From 1994 To 2005; High Court Orders FIR For Forgery, Cheating
The catalyst for Ajmal’s intervention occurred when a group of high-achieving students from Calicut University approached his office seeking practical industrial experience. Though eager to mentor the next generation, Ajmal was blindsided by a restrictive university guideline presented by the students. According to current university mandates, an enterprise offering academic internships must possess a minimum of ten years of operational experience.
“Just think about it!” Ajmal wrote in his social media post. “Due to this sole obstinacy of requiring a ten-year antiquity, our students are being completely blocked from entering startups and new technology companies where they could rapidly learn the latest technologies and primary employability skills.”
He argued that judging a company solely by its age is a flawed metric that actively bars students from Kerala’s vibrant, modern tech sector. By disqualifying younger establishments, universities are inadvertently restricting students to older, more traditional corporate structures that may lack exposure to cutting-edge digital workflows.
Read Also: PIB Clarification Over A Fake Railway Recruitment Notification For 4,660 Posts
The entrepreneur’s investigation deepened during a recent visit to a leading college campus in Kozhikode, where he uncovered what he describes as an institutionalised scam. He revealed that several educational institutions have partnered with predatory external commercial training agencies to circumvent off-campus requirements.
These entities conduct high-priced “in-house internships” directly inside college classrooms. Desperate students, bound by strict academic criteria to secure an internship certificate to graduate, are forced to pay exorbitant fees for these superficial programmes.
Ajmal did not mince his words when describing the trend: “This needs to be called out openly: this policy of ‘Mandatory Internship’ has now turned into a mafia to exploit students. Fake training centres and ‘certificate mills’ are running a business of selling mere paper certificates by taking money from desperate students who desperately need the certificate to complete their degree.”
He stressed that true internship experiences should expose students to the realities of the professional world—including strict deadlines, client pressures, and product commercialisation. Instead, he noted, paying to sit in a standard college classroom for a basic workshop is not an internship, but rather a deceptive system he termed “Classroom 2.0.”
Read Also: 8 Lakh Applicants For Limited Govt Vacancies: Congress Blasts “Fake Gujarat Model”
To dismantle this exploitative parallel economy and realign higher education with genuine skill development, Ajmal submitted a comprehensive five-point reform roadmap to Minister Roji M. John and regional university syndicates:
Legal Registration Over Company Age:
He urged the government to replace the ten-year antiquity rule with verified legal registration, such as valid GSTIN or Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) records. He suggested that priority should be granted to startups recognised by Startup India and the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), effectively opening corporate doors to agile local tech hubs.
Mandatory 1:10 Intern-to-Employee Ratio:
To cripple commercial “certificate factories” that sell documents to hundreds of students simultaneously without offering actual workspaces, Ajmal proposed capping interns based on a firm’s true capacity. Limiting companies to one intern for every ten permanent employees ensures proper physical seating, individual mentorship, and meaningful project involvement.
Complete Ban on ‘Pay-to-Work’ Schemes:
The roadmap demands a strict prohibition on any fees levied on students for internships by either colleges or external agencies. Programmes charging students should be classified strictly as optional training modules, carrying zero academic internship credits.
Abolition of In-House Campus Internships:
Colleges must act strictly as facilitators connecting students with external industries rather than letting commercial vendors run mass training events inside campuses to offset institutional administrative liabilities.
Phased Digital Implementation:
To prevent student panic and thwart a potential black market for backdated fake certificates, Ajmal recommended a structured 12-month digital transition framework.
The proposed digital framework outlines a transition where universities open a central validation portal for approved startups during the first six months. This will be followed by a strict enforcement of the 1:10 employment ratio and the commercial fee ban.
The final phase envisions a fully digital oversight infrastructure where students upload bi-weekly “Milestone Logs” directly to a university portal, verified digitally by their respective corporate mentors. This shift intends to permanently end the outdated practice of evaluating a student’s professional competency solely via a printed sheet of paper.
“We must move from mere paperwork to real skill development,” Ajmal concluded, urging immediate bureaucratic intervention before the widening gap between academia and practical industry paradigms causes irreparable harm to Kerala’s domestic talent pool.
The Higher Education Department and university syndicates are yet to issue an official response to the open letter.
