CALUM MACDONALD and ANDREW DENHOLM

Their brochures show New York skylines and top-quality campuses. The reality is very different, as Calum Macdonald and Andrew Denholm reveal:

COMMONWEALTH COLLEGE

The prospectus for the Commonwealth College Glasgow has been designed to showcase both the institution and the city in which it is based, which is why an unsuspecting student could find it confusing.

The picture on the front of the prospectus is not of George Square but the Gothic Grand Place in Brussels.

Inside there is a photograph of a park, which at first glance could be Kelvingrove. Take a second glance and the Manhattan skyline is discernible.

Then there is the photograph of the sprawling green campus which looks more like a Highland estate than the rough-and-ready warehouse district of Tradeston south of the River Clyde.

Even a photograph of the modern-looking college, all glass and clean lines, bears no resemblance to the actual college, a crumbling turn-of-the-century sandstone building in Kingston Street which has seen better days.

Nonetheless, Commonwealth College Glasgow does have genuine students, mostly from Pakistan, India and Nigeria, and it does run classes and exams.

It was created by Iram Iqbal, a 29-year-old graduate of Glasgow Caledonian University from Partick who told The Herald she started the college with money from her savings.

She is currently on maternity leave and her cousin, Umbreen Iqbal, 25, is running the college. She lives in Jordanhill in Glasgow.

Both cousins said the college had been operating for two-and-a-half years but according to official documents from Companies House it was registered as a business only in June last year.

Umbreen Iqbal yesterday showed The Herald around the college, which occupies four storeys and includes numerous small classrooms and a library with an odd assortment of books, such as Wilbur Smith novels and a copy of Murder on the Orient Express.

Umbreen Iqbal said the college was offering only HNC and HND courses and not degree-level programmes.

Yet the prospectus informs students they can choose from a number of undergraduate courses, including a BA (Hons) in accounting and finance and also postgraduate degrees, including an MA in human resource management.

The college website address is www.gcwc.ac. The web addresses of all officially recognised universities and colleges in the UK end with the suffix ac.uk'. The ac' suffix on Commonwealth College's website is the internet country code for the Ascension Islands, where the web address for the Glasgow college is based.

The website itself includes a section called "accreditation/registration" which lists a number of professional organisations, including their logos.

Two of those organisations are the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), to which it specifically states that it is affiliated. However, a spokeswoman for CIMA said this was not the case.

She said: "They are not registered as a CIMA learning tuition provider and should not be using the CIMA logo and we have now advised them to remove that from their website."

A spokesman for ACCA added: "Commonwealth College is not one of our affiliated colleges and they are not entitled to be using our logo."

Another institution listed as an affiliate is the University of Newcastle, which is not based in the north-east of England, but instead in the north-west of the United States in Portland, Oregon. According to the state authorities, the University of New Castle (as it is sometimes referred to on its website), is operating illegally in the state of Oregon.

The other college investigated by The Herald, the Great Regent College, also claims affiliation with this institution.

Umbreen Iqbal insisted Commonwealth College was a legitimate institution. She said: "We have nothing to hide. I know of four or five different private colleges in Glasgow which I have checked out and which did not look good.

"It is difficult for us when there are Mickey Mouse colleges out there. It doesn't help those, like ourselves, who are doing things legitimately."

GREAT REGENT COLLEGE

The first port of call for potential students is the college website, which is full of information about the centre, its staff and facilities.

In particular, the college is very proud of its campus, which it claims "has a uniquely harmonious blend of rich, historic buildings and modern, innovative facilities".

In fact, Great Regent College is based up a close in a grubby second-floor apartment in Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street, and its name does not even feature on the security door buzzer at street level.

The Herald was welcomed into the "college" yesterday by Wasim Hashmi, who said he was the college co-ordinator.

Mr Hashmi said the owner was a Mr Akhtar, who was unavailable. Nevertheless, Mr Hashmi willingly gave a tour of the "college", which comprises two large rooms and a few smaller ones.

Of particular interest was the computer lab, which it is claimed on the website is "fully equipped with latest versions of computers" and the library which the college said is "equipped with all necessary books and relevant materials enabling students to carry out their research work".

The lab is nothing more than eight outdated Dell computers and the library a small collection of seemingly random books, few of which have anything to do with computers or IT.

Nevertheless, the greatest asset of any institution is not bricks and mortar, nor books and computers, but its staff.

Again, the Great Regent College is very proud of its staff. It claims: "We understand that highly professional and trained teachers are extremely essential for the prospective students to educate them outstandingly using modern teaching techniques.

"For this purpose we have hired highly professional and experienced teaching staff to meet the higher standards of teaching requirements."

However, when asked about this Mr Hashmi said the college was merely "in the process of recruiting staff" and said so far the faculty was made up of two English language teachers and two IT teachers.

Of the discrepancy between the description of the "harmonious blend of rich, historic buildings" and the reality of a second-floor flat, Mr Hashmi said: "We were wanting to build on Pollokshaws Road. We were almost in a final deal, then the deal was denied, so we came here and got this."

When quizzed how many students had passed through Great Regent College, he said: "We have not started yet, we are brand new.

"We have recently registered with the Department for Education and Skills, we work very hard to try to start up in September."

Yet on the college's website it claims that many students have passed through the college, graduated and are now pursuing successful careers. It states: "Great Regent College which is known as a name of excellence and an academic resort. The Great Regent College has received recognition throughout the United Kingdom for its excellence in liberal arts, research, technology, business and hospitality management. Employers consistently marvel how GRC graduates are able to hit the ground running, making a GRC degree worth more in the marketplace."

How a college which has yet to admit any students can also boast of employers being consistently marvelled by its graduates is not explained.

Neither is it explained how the college is going to cope with running no fewer than 141 undergraduate degree programmes in everything from clinical genetics, molecular medicine and mathematics to philosophy, fine art and law from premises up a close.

Just how the horses, presumably essential for those Great Regent College undergraduates studying for the BSc (Hons) in Equine Sports Science, are going to manage up two flights of stairs remains a mystery.