Tag Archives: Nisha Padmanabhan

Nisha Padmanabhan, a new Singaporean of India origin has a Masters degree conferred by Southern Pacific University, a known degree mill. This issue was discovered by a sharp-eyed Singaporean who subsequently posted his discovery on popular Singapore social media websites. IDA's response has caused discomfort among civil servants, especially among ground officers within Immigration & Checkpoint Authority (ICA) which is known by the public to be the first line of defence against dubious characters who wish to relocate and work in Singapore.

Southern Pacific University might be an unaccredited institution, but the degree that she possesses is not a fake one as everyone is alleging. I have validated with some of my ex-colleagues who had their friends who did their courses from SPU. I understand that there were proper credit hours awarded through lecture sessions and dissertations that students had to complete before getting this degree.

I am planning to apply a job at IDA. Heard you guys accept fake degrees from fake universities. Will get one and apply here. What positions are available at the moment?

After netizens exposed an IDA staff Nisha Padmananbhan for having a fake MBA from Southern Pacific University, IDA refused to tackle this important issue head on. Instead they said that Nisha was hired based on her Bachelor's degree and her fake MBA was not taken into account. However IDA fail to see that this is not a qualification issue but an integrity issue. How can you hire a person who buys an MBA from a degree mill? Is a staff with such questionable integrity good for the public service?

I am writing to question how IDA handles its recruitment. This comes at the time when the education qualifications of one of your staff Ms Nisha Padmanabhan is called into question by the public. This is in relation to her MBA is from South Pacific University which has a earned itself a reputation as a paper mill. This leads us to question why is IDA recruiting totally unqualified foreigners instead of Singaporeans. Are we really that short of talent that we need recruit sub standard workers from overseas.

When it was pointed out to the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore that one of its employees, Nisha Padmanabhan, had a Masters degree from a degree mill that has since shut down, the IDA’s response could scarcely have been predicted. It replied that the MBA qualification had little bearing on her hiring. Her salary and job scope were based on her Bachelor’s degree and prior work experience.

Yesterday (16 Apr), TRE published a story about an Indian national turned Singaporean, Nisha Padmanabhan, who is employed by IDA (‘IDA defends staff who obtained MBA from degree mill‘). As it turns out, the MBA that Ms Padmanabhan obtained was from a degree mill, the Southern Pacific University (SPU).