Manipulating Wikipedia to Promote a Bogus Business School
No idea what “ArbCom” is? You're not the only one. It's the Wikipedia Arbitration Committee, the highest court in Wikipedia land. And Wifione was a Wikipedia “administrator” account, run by persons unknown, that was accused of manipulating the Wikipedia site of an unaccredited business school in India by deleting links to numerous media reports alleging it scammed students into paying hefty sums for worthless degrees.
For four years, that Wikipedia page was a primary marketing tool of the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), which at one time boasted a network of 18 branches and which drew tens of thousands of students over the years. It lured students with the promise of an MBA and partnerships with international universities in the United States and Europe.
Last September, the High Court of Delhi ruled that those promises were misleading and that IIPM was not accredited to confer any degrees.
So this isn't just a question of obscure Wikipedian politics. It's a tale that demonstrates how Wikipedia can be cynically manipulated by companies, and how the credibility of the website is, especially in the developing world, a powerful and potentially dangerous tool.
The Wifione account, which the Arbitration Committee has now banned indefinitely from editing the site, had been active since 2009. “They managed to blend in, like a chameleon,” said Andreas Kolbe, an experienced Wikipedia editor. “Wifione offered to do administrative donkey work, said the right things about how inspiring 'the project' is and was unfailingly polite.”
Wifione's helpfulness eventually bore fruit—the account was promoted to an “Administrator.” “Admins have a huge advantage in Wikipedia,” explains Kolbe. “The default assumption is that they are ‘good guys.’”
Wifione's primary purpose from that point appeared to be to monitor IIPM’s Wikipedia page. If criticism of the business school appeared, Wifione would use its influence to remove it, according to the Arbitration Committee.
In 2009, Careers360, an English-language magazine about the Indian education industry, started publishing a series of investigative stories about IIPM. The magazine noticed that in its advertising literature, IIPM claimed it was linked to a Belgian business school called IMI Belgium, styling its course as a premium “European MBA.” But Careers360 published what it said was a letter from Belgian education authorities saying IMI Belgium was not accredited and had no legal authority to grant MBAs. (The Delhi High Court found IMI Belgium was nothing more than an “alter ego or another face of IIPM.”)
IIPM also advertised partnerships with a number of foreign institutions, including the University of Buckingham in Britain. Careers360 reported that Buckingham University had told it that it had no formal agreement with IIPM—a report judged to be true by a court in the Indian state of Uttarakhand that dismissed a libel suit over the story. The magazine also reported that many of IIPM’s graduates were unable to find work or ended up working for IIPM as lecturers, at much lower salaries than they might have expected from the advertising that had lured them. The magazine also found that neither of India's official educational bodies had accredited IIPM's so-called MBAs. (The Delhi court ruling confirmed this too.)
“My parents re-mortgaged their farm to pay for this degree,” one former student was quoted as saying. “I'm just too scared to tell them it was a fraud. It's better they just think I have an MBA. It would break their heart.”
Like many who attended IIPM, the student, who did not want to be identified, said she was unable to find management work after graduating, despite the school’s promise that the degree would open doors at some of India's leading companies. Students paid up to $15,000 for IIPM’s courses. “What IIPM was really selling was aspiration,” says Mahesh Peri, publisher of Careers360, which has successfully defended itself against two libel suits over its reporting on the school. (Several more suits filed in courts around India are still grinding their way through the slow and fragmented system.)
Financial documents from 2010 reported by Careers360 show IIPM reported revenues of about $39 million.
In its September ruling, the Delhi High Court ordered IIPM to stop making false claims in its advertising and to post the court ruling on its website, making it clear that it had no authority to confer degrees of any kind. The court also noted that IIPM may be liable “in any action taken by any other person for having been misled in the past”—effectively opening the door for students to sue the school.
Calls to the offices of IIPM were not returned. Arindam Chaudhuri, the sharp-suited dean of IIPM and a self-styled “management guru,” did not respond to numerous calls for comment on this story, and his whereabouts could not be ascertained. He also did not respond to messages sent by email and to hisFacebook page. Peri believes he may have left India.
