New Delhi: Misleading educational advertisement and unverified claims by many educational institutions will soon be under strict scanner as the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) on Monday decided to issue a set of guidelines and put up its first draft for wider consultations.

Mint has reported about such a plan on 16 August. The proposed advertising guidelines for educational institutions, among other things, prohibits institutions and programs from claiming recognition, authorization, accreditation, or affiliations without having proper evidence. The guideline proposes to put the accreditations availed by institutes prominently in the ads.

Once the guidelines comes into effect, educational institutions will not be able to promise jobs, admissions, job promotions, salary increase, etc. without substantiating such claims and also assuming full responsibility in the same advertisement. The proposed guidelines discourages institutions from claiming success in placements, student compensations, admission to renowned institutes, marks and rankings, and topper student testimonials unless every such claim is substantiated with evidence. The new advertising content guidelines will apply to ads of all educational institutions, coaching classes and educational programs, the ad watchdog said.

ASCI’s chairman Dhananjay Keskar said: “ASCI recognizes the role of educational institutions in building the country’s intellectual capital and the value parents place in them for getting the right education for their children. ASCI realizes that a variety of these claims in advertisements need to be regulated through a set of guidelines tailor-made for the education sector.”