World Trade University sounds like a pretty impressive name—too bad it’s a university in name only. And if B.C.’s public university professors get their way, WTU wouldn’t even keep its name.

After British Columbia passed special legislation to grant WTU status, the school’s founder was caught in a series of lies.

Last Monday, Confederation of University Faculty Associations of B.C. called on the provincial government to rescind legislation establishing the WTU.

The so-called school is a sham, says CUFABC, and tarnishes the image of the B.C. government.

Headquartered on a military base in Chilliwack, B.C., the private school was established by Sujit Chowdhury in November 2005, when the World Trade University Canada Establishment Act granted it university-degree status.

But so far, all that it’s granted is a lot of suspicion.

“In three years, this institution hasn’t been able to design a viable degree program. It’s time for government to pull the plug on this failed experiment,” saidd Robert Clift, executive director of CUFABC, in a news release.

According to WTU’s web site, the school aims to “play a lead role in delivering high quality advanced world trade education programs to students from around the world.”

But so far, business classes that were supposed to have started in 2007 have yet to open. False insinuations of international campuses and affiliation with the World Bank and the WTO have been exposed, after WTU went to considerable lengths in trying to tie itself to global institutions, including its online statement that it was founded as a “UN mechanism.”

“At various times, it was suggested that Mr. Chowdhury held a doctorate, which is not the case,” said Clift, who also pointed to WTU’s other false claims.

The National Post reported that WTU consists of only the “furnished, one-storey building in Chilliwack that it moved into three years ago.” The City of Chilliwack’ paid $1 million to renovate the building and leased it to WTU for $1 a year.

WTU withdrew its application to offer a Master’s degree in February this year. The academic community speculates Chowdhury did so because the proposal would have been rejected anyway by the Degree Quality Assessment Board, the body that authorizes degrees in B.C.

So far, WTU has no students and cannot operate as a university, but it can still call itself one. In response to the CUFABC’s call, the B.C. minister of education, Murray Coell, said it was an “interesting idea” and that he would take it under advisory.

Sujit Chowdhury, the founder and president of WTU, is rarely heard from.