New Delhi: In a huge relief to the deemed universities, the Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that it has taken a decision to frame criteria to deal with the issue of recognition of private universities across the country
Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, submitted that a decision had been taken not to opt for gradation of deemed universities and that there should be an objective criteria to bring about uniformity and to avoid arbitrariness.
He told a Bench of justices Dipak Misra and Vikramajit Sen that the government would consult all the stakeholders including the All India Council for Technical Education, University Grants Commission, National Assessment and Accreditation Council and National Board of Accreditation and come out with new guidelines in three months.
Welcoming the Centre’s stand the Vice-Chancellor of SASTRA University, Prof. R. Sethuraman in a statement said, “It is a good move by the HRD ministry to evolve a new review system, which ideally should be done by NAAC.”
He said the UGC has a statutory mandate to review all universities and this has been repeatedly highlighted by many, including the UGC leadership but unfortunately not implemented so far. UGC must use this timely opportunity and review all deemed universities in the interest of quality and all Universities with NAAC A grade must be encouraged and not ignored based on Tandon Committee recommendations which is arbitrary and faulty, he said.
Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, appearing for UGC said of the 41 DUs (which were sought to be de-recognised) physical inspection was conducted in eight DUs.
