City’s eleven institutes are waiting for the deemed status
Pune Mirror: The fate of as many as 27 institutions from Maharashtra that had applied for the ‘deemed to be university’ status are pending with the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in Delhi for the last two years. Eleven institutes out of the 27 are from Pune.
However, the procedure may take long, as MHRD is likely to review the rules and regulations before granting the status to any institution.
Pune already has seven universities with the deemed status and 11 new proposals are pending with the University Grants Commission (UGC) and MHRD. The delay is due to the likely revamp of the process of recognition.
An expert committee appointed by the central government has raised questions about practices while granting the status of deemed to be university.
A report submitted by Yashpal Committee in March 2009, observed the necessity to check norms for granting deemed university status to an institution.
Furthermore, it raised a question on the necessity of a regulating body like UGC. About the deemed university status, the committee had recommended that the practice of granting the status be stopped.
Now, post-elections and a new HRD Minister in place, MHRD has started taking action according to the committee’s recommendations.
In a directive to UGC, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal had asked to put all pending proposals for deemed status on hold. The HRD Minister wrote a letter to UGC seeking thorough review of functioning of existing deemed universities.
UGC had recently sent a letter to all the deemed universities directing them to follow the norms.
The letter says, “The deemed to be university shall not open off-campus centres or off-shore campus or any new department without obtaining prior approval from UGC or Government of India.
Deemed universities shall not conduct any course under distance mode without approval of UGC-AICTE-DEC joint committee. ”
Under Section-3 of UGC Act, 1956, after inspection, UGC grants recognition to institutions as deemed to be university.
As per MHRD’s new directive, fees for the courses of deemed universities should also be regulated by a state level committee.
A deemed university should get sanction from the state appointed committee before making any fee hike.
A committee will be constituted to formulate the basic norms and regulations for appraisals of the deemed universities’ staff. The committee is expected to submit its report by September this year.
Sibal has also asked UGC to find out the accreditation status of the existing deemed universities with the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, and the National Board of Accreditation.
The interim report of the Yashpal Committee had suggested mandatory accreditation for all existing deemed universities.
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