[orc]The Supreme Court has recently directed the UGC to ensure that deemed to be universities do not use the word ‘University’ in their names. Will mere dropping the word ‘University’ make any difference?
The Supreme Court (SC) recently suspended the engineering degrees obtained by students between 2001 & 2005, in the distance mode from ‘Deemed to be Universities’. The court directed that the UGC & AICTE conduct a test for these students whose degrees have been suspended. In the same judgment, the court directed the UGC to ensure that the deemed to be universities do not use the word university in their name.
What are ‘Deemed to be Universities’?
Section 3 of the UGC act empowers the Central Government to declare any institution of higher education to be a deemed to be university. Typically, institutions which are doing work of very high academic standard in a specialized field comparable to a university are supposed to be granted the deemed status. The idea is that these institutions would slowly become universities.
Questions raised on quality & other issues in these institutions
Multiple questions have been raised in the past on the quality of education, standards and various other issues in the deemed to be universities. Some of these institutions were found to have started off-campuses without the approval of MHRD. Others were found to have serious deficiencies as pointed by a committee appointed by the UGC. Questions have also been raised in the Parliament about the high fee charged by some of these institutions for entrance examinations.
The Tandon Committee in its review report submitted in 2009 also highlighted the serious deficiencies in these institutions. The committee had in fact recommended that 44 such institutions do not deserve to retain their position as deemed to be universities. These 44 institutions later approached the SC which directed the UGC to examine the report and issue notices.
After many such issues were raised, the UGC issued the ‘UGC [Institutions Deemed to be Universities] Regulations’ in 2016 superseding the earlier regulations. The new set of regulations contain stringent eligibility criteria to ensure quality of education, periodic inspection for reviewing infrastructure, faculty, admission process, examinations process, research, etc.
Will dropping ‘University’ in the name make any difference?
Following the SC judgment, the UGC had issued a letter asking all such deemed to be universities to stop using the word ‘University’ in their name.