Applications of five Tamil Nadu institutions pending
According to the information provided in the University Grants Commission (UGC) website, applications of 25 institutions, including five from Tamil Nadu, two from unified Andhra Pradesh, one each from Kerala and Karnataka are pending with the
Chennai: With the case in the Supreme Court pending against deemed universities for over four years, several colleges, which want to upgrade as deemed university, are facing a lot of difficulties as the HRD ministry is yet to initiate any such move. According to the information provided in the University Grants Commission (UGC) website, applications of 25 institutions, including five from Tamil Nadu, two from unified Andhra Pradesh, one each from Kerala and Karnataka are pending with the commission for conferment of deemed university status.
Citing national knowledge commission’s recommendation stressing the need for 1,500 universities in the country, SRM University founder-chancellor T.R. Pachamuthu said that five years ago, the UPA government stopped the process to award deemed university status to institutions as it wanted to review the status of existing deemed universities and since then the HRD ministry had not grant deemed university status to new applicants.
“Deemed universities have been imparting good quality education for a long time and even as the country needs more such universities, the present government, too, is not granting deemed university status. It is high time they started the process,” he said. Head of one of the private engineering colleges in the state, which wants to get upgraded as deemed university, urged the HRD ministry to start the process at the earliest as the Supreme Court case had nothing to do with award of deemed university status to new applicants.
UGC sources said even though a case is pending in the Supreme Court, becoming a deemed university for several colleges would be difficult as they need to follow UGC’s 2010 regulation for deemed universities that had several stringent provisions like the promoter of the institution cannot become the chancellor of the university, which colleges won’t accept.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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