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Centre announces new guidelines for granting deemed university status
Centre announces new guidelines for granting deemed university status | PTI New Delhi Published 02.06.23 | The Telegraph |
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan released the UGC (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2023, which will replace the 2019 guidelines
Higher education institutions which are less than 20 years old will now be eligible to apply for deemed university status and private universities will have to create executive councils like central universities, according to the University Grants Commission’s revised guidelines. The Centre on Friday released the revised guidelines for existing higher education institutions to get the deemed to be status by simplifying the eligibility criteria in order to establish more quality-focused deemed universities. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan released the UGC (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2023, which will replace the 2019 guidelines. According to Pradhan, the new rules are built on the principle of a “light but tight” regulatory framework envisioned in the National Education Policy 2020.
“The new simplified guidelines will encourage universities to focus on quality and excellence, strengthen the research ecosystem and have a long-term impact in transforming our higher education landscape. The norms will facilitate creation of many more quality-focused deemed to be universities in an objective and transparent manner,” Pradhan said. The University Grants Commission (UGC) Act provides for the central government to declare any institution other than a university the status of institution deemed to be university. The first set of regulations in this regard was notified in 2010 and these were subsequently revised in 2016 and 2019. Under the 2019 guidelines, the higher education institutions having “existence for not less than 20 years” were eligible for applying for the status. However, the revised guidelines have now replaced it with multi-disciplinarity, NAAC grading, NIRF ranking and NBA grading. It means any multi-disciplinary institution having valid accreditation by NAAC with at least 3.01 cumulative grade point average (CGPA) for three consecutive cycles, NBA accreditation for two-thirds of eligible programmes for three consecutive cycles or in the top 50 of any specific category of NIRF for the last three years continuously will be able to apply for the deemed status, the guidelines stated.
Besides, a cluster of institutions managed by more than one sponsoring body or a society can also apply for deemed to be university status, it added. The new regulations also introduces the “Distinct Institution” category, where an existing institution or an institution starting from the beginning with the focus on teaching and research in unique disciplines and/or addressing the strategic needs of the country or engaged in the preservation of Indian cultural heritage or preservation of the environment or dedicated to skill development or dedicated to sports or languages or any other discipline, so determined by the Expert Committee of Commission, will be exempted from eligibility criteria. UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar said that the 2023 guidelines are in tune with NEP 2020 and they are light but tight. “We hope these regulations will encourage many more high-quality higher education institutions to be established in our country in emerging areas to meet the aspirations of our students. Since ‘deemed to be universities’ wording is part of the UGC Act, 1956, we cannot remove this term at this time. However, it will be removed once the Higher Education Commission of India is established through an act of Parliament,” he said. There are around 170 deemed institutions in the country currently.
Among other criteria that have been changed are the faculty strength has been increased from 100 to 150, corpus fund for private institutions has been increased from Rs 10 crore to Rs 25 crore, and creation of an executive councils like central universities in these universities as well. The revised guidelines have also made it mandatory for deemed universities to register on Academic Bank of Credits (ABC). “The institutions can offer twinning programmes, joint degree programmes, and dual degree programmes in accordance with the provisions stipulated in the regulations concerned,” the guidelines stated. Besides, deemed universities with minimum ‘A’ grade and above or ranked from 1 to 100 in the “universities” category of NIRF rankings of the relevant year are eligible to set up off-campus centres. “Institutions declared as deemed to be university under a ‘distinct category’ can apply for off-campus after five years of their declaration if they are accredited with an A grade or figured in the top 100 in the ‘universities’ category of NIRF,” the guidelines added. Courtesy / Click here to view / download UGC Circular – E-Gazatte
UGC forms panel to select top 20 educational institutions in India
The Economic Times | TNN | Feb 21, 2018 |
NEW DELHI: A panel headed by a former CEC and comprising top international and Indian academicians will shortlist India’s best higher educational institutions which will then be primed to have a shot at international glory.The University Grants Commission announced on Tuesday the four-member empowered expert committee (EEC) which is being entrusted to conduct the appraisal of the applications for shortlisting the 20 institutions of eminence (IoE). N Gopalaswami, the former chief election commissioner of India, is the chairperson of the committee, which comprises Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemman Professor, Harvard Business School; Pritam Singh, former director of IIM, Lucknow and MDI, Gurugram; and Renu Khator, chancellor, University of Houston System. The government is likely to announce the names of the selected institutions by April 2018. The committee was constituted by the UGC post the approval of central government as per the UGC (Institutions of Eminence Deemed to be Universities) Regulation 2017 and UGC (Declaration of Government Educational Institutions as Institutions of Eminence) Guidelines 2017.
Off-campus colleges of of deemed universities face heat from AICTE
The Times of India | Pushpa Narayan | TNN | Feb 5, 2018 | Off-campus colleges face heat from AICTE |
CHENNAI: Off-campus units of deemed universities, 1.5km or farther from the institution’s main campus, are staring at trouble, with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) mandating that they register separately to engineering courses under a new set of new guidelines the council issued last week. On January 26, the council released 10 guidelines based on its Approval Process Handbook 2018-19 and a November 2017 Supreme Court order, which said all deemed universities should apply as new institutes for approval of all courses in engineering and technology, pharmacy, architecture, applied arts and crafts, management and MCA. “Universities running their programs or courses from multiple locations… in the same city or different cities should apply separately for all their campuses (multiple locations) AICTE approval,” it said.
This has triggered debate among administrators, educationalists and policymakers, as some universities run more than one unit that the Union HRD ministry has not notified as an off-campus facility. The apex court order said all institutions offering technical education would function under AICTE, but UGC would retain the power to grant institutions university status. AICTE officials said they had started the exercise because deemed universities did not share information on their campus, seat or student numbers or graduate and placement data. “AICTE will only check if the facilities available are [proportionate to the number of students and courses] based on standard quality norms,” said AICTE chairman Anil Shastrabudhe. “UGC permits [off-campus colleges, so] if the universities have colleges, there [should be] no problem. We want to ensure that they have [adequate] facilities.” The Supreme Court said deemed universities offering technical and engineering courses must come under AICTE,” said Rabu Manohar, a senior counsel of the Centre. “Most of these universities never had AICTE approval for engineering courses. It’s time for them to fall in line under AICTE or they will be in contempt of the apex court.”Academicians disagree. They ask: Will these campuses register under a deemed university? If so, will AICTE step in the shoes of the UGC? Some senior academicians like former Anna University vice-chancellor M Ananthakrishnan want more drastic action. “Off-campus campuses are illegal; the authorities should close them,” he said. “We need a uniform law and better enforcement.”- Courtesy
The Madras High Court directive to AICTE on approval for deemed-to-be universities
Outlook | 29 January 2018 | Chennai |
Chennai, Jan 29 : The Madras High Court today directed the technical education regulator AICTE not to take any punitive action against certain deemed-to-be universities in Tamil Nadu which have not responded to its notice seeking applications for approval of courses for 2018-19. Justice R Mahadevan passed the interim order effective for two weeks when a batch of petitions, including those from the Vellore Institute of Technology and Veltech Deemed University, came up for hearing. The petitioners prayed the court to declare as unconstitutional and ultra vires of the University Grants Commission Act the public notice issued by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) last year and as inapplicable to them. They contended that they were governed by the UGC and AICTE had no power to ask them to seek approval as new institutions.
VIT’s counsel submitted that the AICTE vide its notice has invited applications for approval from all the existing and proposed technical institutions for conducting technical programmes/courses, including course of management for 2018-19 academic year. The last date for submitting applications by new institutions was January 31. The notice stated that deemed-to-be universities seeking approval for the first time from the AICTE (in compliance with a Supreme Court order of November 3, 2017) should submit an application as a new technical institution. The counsel contended that the apex court order was applicable only to institutions offering technical course degrees awarded by the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode and not the deemed-to-be universities. Veltech Deemed University submitted that after being declared a deemed-to-be university, it was functioning under the guidelines of the UGC which along with the Human Resources Development Ministry was monitoring its activities. Hence, the AICTE has no power to seek its approval by the petitioner university as a new one, counsel for the university argued. – Courtesy
UGC cuts short names of these deemed universities after Supreme Court mandate
Financial Express | FE Online | New Delhi | January 14, 2018 |
Even before some of the universities getting the university status had begun to call themselves universities on their own.
In November last year, the University Grants Commission (UGC) was asked by the Supreme Court of India to stop using the word ‘university’ in the names of deemed universities. After that the government has compiled names of the varsities this week, however, names of the 10 such institutes have weird sounding names. For example, Santosh University’s name in Ghaziabad has been cropped to “Santosh”. And from now on, Dehradun’s Graphic Era University will be called “Graphic Era”. Symbiosis International University from Pune will be known as “Symbiosis International”. Christ University from Bengaluru has been changed to only “Christ”, and Jain University will be known as “Jain”. On Friday, the HRD Ministry These institutions are among 14 deemed-to-be universities that were intimated of their new names by the HRD Ministry on Friday. Following the Supreme Court verdict, back in November last year, the UGC had issued a warning to 123 deemed-to-be universities. The warning called for strong action if they dropped the word ‘university’ from their names. Even before some of the universities getting the university status had begun to call themselves universities on their own. However, the government was to be at fault in naming 14 of such institutions. The notification issued by the HRD Ministry announced their deemed status referred to them as universities.
In order to rectify their mistakes, the UGC ordered these institutions to go for alternative names which do not have the word ‘university’. After the issuance of the suggestion by the UGC, names of four were accepted. The HRD Ministry on Friday informed the 14 institutions of their new names. The four deemed universities whose suggested alternative names found favour with the government are: Manav Rachna International University will now be known as Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies. Lingaya’s University will be known as Lingaya’s Vidyapeeth. Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeswara University in Mysuru will now be known as JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research and Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya in Haridwar will be known as Gurukul Kangri Vidyapeeth. – Courtesy
Deemed varsities cannot use ‘University’ in their names, rules Supreme Court
Zee news India | Nov 08, 2017 |
Deemed varsities can no longer use the word “university” in their names, ruled the Supreme Court. The top court further asked the University Grants Commission to implement the order within a month.
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NEW DELHI: Deemed varsities can no longer use the word “university” in their names, ruled the Supreme Court. The top court further asked the University Grants Commission to implement the order within a month. The SC was listening to a case involving the entitlement of the Deemed varsities to start engineering courses through distance mode and award degrees for the same. The order was passed on Friday, November 3. SC’s decision has come as a major blow for several varsities. There are 117 deemed varsities in India, many of them seeking the status of full-fledged private universities.
The court further added that varsities and institutes can award degrees but cannot use the word “University” by virtue of Section 23 of the UGC Act. “I wish the Supreme Court while this direction, should have detailed and discussed these provisions of UGC Act, 1956. I am also surprised to note that the Supreme Court feels that the Deemed Universities are unregulated, which is not the case, in fact they are the most regulated rather controlled segment,” said Ravi Bhardwaj, a lawyer who has represented deemed universities in court. – Courtesy
GATE-like test for students with cancelled engineering degrees from these 3 deemed universities
Hindustan Times | Neelam Pandey | Nov 06, 2017 | New Delhi |
AICTE is considering an aptitude test for students who obtained engineering degrees from JRN Rajasthan Vidhyapeeth University, Vinayaka Mission Research Foundation and IASE Deemed University.
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Days after the Supreme Court cancelled engineering degrees granted since 2001 by three deemed universities through the distance education mode, the Union HRD ministry has called a meeting of the University Grants Commission (UGC) on Monday to protect the interests of hundreds who could be affected by the move, people familiar with the matter said. JRN Rajasthan Vidhyapeeth University, Udaipur; Vinayaka Mission Research Foundation, Salem, Tamil Nadu; and IASE Deemed University, Rajasthan — have been conducting distance engineering programmes without necessary approvals, including that from the UGC or the All India Council for Technical Education or AICTE. The people said that the country’s apex technical education regulator AICTE is considering conducting an aptitude test for students who received degrees from these universities between 2001 and 2005 so that they are not affected. If they clear this GATE-like test it will validate their degrees, the people added.
GATE stands for Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering and is conducted jointly by some of the country’s best engineering colleges including the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology for admission to post-graduate programmes. The test being considered by the ministry is in keeping with the Supreme Court’s directive. The degrees awarded through distance learning by the three deemed universities to students admitted after 2005 stand cancelled. The universities have been directed by the court to return the tuition fee and other expenditure incurred by the students. “We are examining the court order and may consider a GATE-like exam for which modalities will be worked out,” said a senior AICTE official. AICTE rules mandate that engineering degrees cannot be offered through distance education mode. Officials at the regulator told Hindustan Times that they are working on a blended learning mode.
Officials in the HRD ministry said the HRD minister would meet UGC officials to discuss the issue related to the deemed universities and technical education programmes being offered through the distance education mode. “UGC has not allowed engineering courses through the distance mode. Currently, as per the HRD ministry the regulatory powers on open and distance learning (ODL) is vested with the UGC,” one of the officials said. Recently, UGC notified the Open and Distance Learning) Regulations, 2017. The commission, through the regulations, laid down the minimum standards of instruction for the grant of degree at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels through the open and distance learning mode. The Supreme Court on Friday also restrained “all deemed-to-be universities to carry on any courses in distance education mode from the academic session 2018-2019 onwards unless and until it is permissible to conduct such courses in distance education mode and specific permissions are granted by the concerned statutory/regulatory authorities in respect of each of those courses and unless the off-campus centres/study centres are individually inspected and found adequate by the concerned statutory authorities”. – Courtesy
SC ban on engineering degree through correspondence: 10 key points and developments
Nov 06, 2017 | 09:54 IST | Times Now Digital
New Delhi: Supreme Court on Friday passed an order banning correspondence courses in technical education. Apart from banning any such courses in future, SC has also asked the All India Council of Technical Education to re-conduct examination for all the students who have acquired their engineering degrees through correspondence. The immediate effect of the order has brought lakhs of students under the ambit. Here is the list of development and how it progressed in 10 key points. While the actual number of students affected by the order remains unknown, the estimate suggests that around a lakh and a half students from the four deemed universities would be directly affected. The order has also brought under lens the many ‘deemed’ universities that continue to offer correspondence courses in engineering to diploma holders. SC bench headed by Justice Lalit penned a 118 page verdict. Here are the 10 Key highlights of the verdict and the road ahead explained.
1. Supreme Court has in its order affirmed Punjab and Haryana High Court’s finding and set aside a previous order of Odisha High Court when it banned the ‘deemed universities’ to offer technical courses like engineering through correspondence or distance learning.
2. As per the order, engineering degrees of students of four deemed universities — JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth, Institute of Advanced Studies in Education (IASE), Rajasthan, Allahabad Agricultural Institute (AAI) and Vinayaka Mission’s Research Foundation, Tamil Nadu, will remain suspended.
3. AICTE has been directed to conduct examination for these students latest by January 15, 2018. Students who fail to clear the examination would summarily loose their degrees. However, the degrees of the students who pass the exam would be accordingly reinstated.
4. Students would be given a maximum of 2 tries to clear the examination conducted by AICTE. If the students do not successfully clear the examination within the stipulated time, their degrees will stand cancelled and every single advantage on the basis of that degree shall also stand withdrawn, it said.
5. Monetary benefits gained by students during the time by means of the degree, however, would not be recovered from them. What this means is that in case someone was given a job on the basis of such a degree, then the job would stand suspended. However, the earnings of the person, would not be recovered.
6. Candidates/ students have the ‘choice’ of not writing the examination. These students, would then be eligible to claim a full refund of the tuition fee from these institutes within a month of such claim. However, the degrees of these students would be summarily canceled and all benefits withdrawn. – Courtesy
Supreme Court bans deemed universities from offering engineering courses in distance mode
Deccan Herald | DH News Service | New Delhi, Nov 3 2017 |
A bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and UU Lalit also raised serious questions over the institutions being allowed to use the word ‘university’ and asked the government to restrain them from use of the word.
Supreme Court on Friday ordered CBI probe on officials who allowed a group of deemed universities to offer engineering courses in distance education, as it took a critical view of such institutions. A bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and UU Lalit also raised serious questions over the institutions being allowed to use the word ‘university’ and asked the government to restrain them from use of the word. In a series of orders, the bench banned deemed universities from offering engineering courses through distance education from 2018-19 academic year, instructing them not to do so without the sanction of AICTE. Lamenting that extensive commercialization has robbed higher education of credibility and standard; the bench said it seriously compromised knowledge and impacted excellence and merit. It also asked government to set up a three-member panel to develop roadmap to strengthen higher education and come up with a regulatory system in six months.
“The UGC had completely failed to remedy the situation,” the bench said in its 118-page judgement highlighting failure of monitoring and regulating ‘deemed-to-be-universities.’ “Serious question has therefore arisen as to the manning of the UGC itself for its effective working,” it noted. IT ordered CBI probe on officials who allowed Vinayaka Mission’s research Foundation, Salem, Tamil Nadu, IASE Gandhi Vidya Mandir, Sardarshahr Rajasthan, JRN Vidyapeeth Udaipur, Rajasthan and Allahabad Agriculture Research Institute, Allahabad to offer B Tech and B E courses in distance education mode. It also ordered the UGC to consider if the ‘deemed university’ status enjoyed by the institutions could be withdrawn as they violated policies and norms.
Citing the affidavit of the then UGC Chairman Ved Prakash detailing how the institutes were allowed to offer courses, the bench raised serious doubt over the approach and conduct of the higher education regulator. “On one hand, the authorities were proclaiming their policy statements and on the other, despite there being complaints, they went about granting permissions,” it noted. The issue came up before the apex court following conflicting orders by Orissa and Punjab and Haryana High Courts. While the Orissa HC had approved engineering degrees awarded to serving diploma holders through ‘Off-Campus Study Centres’, Punjab and Haryana HC took a contrary view. The court ordered to suspend degrees awarded to students by the four institutions in the 2001-05 academic session. It asked AICTE to hold a test in May 2018-19 and recall degrees given to students who fail. Asking the varsities to refund fees collected on the course if the students do not wish to appear for the AICTE test, the court also ordered to withdraw any jobs or benefits taken by the students on the basis of those degrees. It ordered to cancel degrees awarded after the academic session 2001-05 and withdraw any jobs given on that basis. – Courtesy / Click here to download / view the Judgement – 118 pages, pdf
UGC eases entry norms for deemed universities
The Indian Express | Express News Service | New Delhi | Published:May 25, 2016 |
The University Grants Commission (UGC) Tuesday announced a series of changes to the regulation governing deemed universities that would relax entry norms and dilute government control over such institutions. In a decision taken last week, the higher education regulator had removed restrictions on the appointment of deemed university chancellors allowing promoters of the institution to occupy the post. This was prohibited under the old regulation of 2010. Another amendment provides for government nominees only in universities which are either controlled by the Centre or receive at least half of their funds from it. For the remaining, UGC will appoint a nominee out of a panel of names made by a search committee. The eligibility criterion for recognising institutions as deemed universities under the ‘De Novo’ category has also been made more flexible. UGC has now introduced the Letter of Intent (or LOI) concept, which will allow promoters to acquire deemed status for a proposed education institution based on some terms of agreement. The applicant is then required to establish the university within three years of acquiring the deemed status as opposed to the old regulation in which the promoter is eligible to apply only after setting up the institution.
Under the land norms, the Commission dropped the rigid parameter of having a five-acre campus in urban metropolitan and seven-acre campus in urban non-metropolitan area and replaced it with the condition that 40 per cent of the land area in a deemed university must be open spaces with 10 square metre per student floor space. Additionally, to ensure quality, institutions vying for the ‘deemed university’ tag will have to either get the highest NAAC or NBA accreditation rating for three cycles consecutively or an ‘A’ grade at the time of application and a position among the top 20 institutions under the National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF). Deemed universities will be able to open off-campus centres only after five years of their existence. Speaking to reporters, Higher Education secretary VS Oberoi, who is also a member of the UGC, said that the new regulations are aimed at reducing “subjectivity” and “government interference”. There are currently 123 deemed universities of which 35 are either run or funded by government and the remaining are private. – Courtesy
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