Deemed-to-be varsities to face overhaul again

The NDA government is preparing another major overhaul of the long-standing rule book and regulations for the country’s 126-odd ‘deemed-to-be’ universities – the third such exercise since 2016.

However, this round of review may have existential implications, as people said it is aimed at aligning deemed universities with the National Policy on Education (NEP) 2020, which explicitly recommended against naming multiple such as “deemed” Is.

In a recent review, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has asked the University Grants Commission (UGC) to ensure that the “Deemed to be University” institution and process is in full alignment with NEP 2020.

Accordingly, a high powered committee has been constituted to comprehensively change the ‘Deemed University’ rules of 2019.

Apart from government officials and university vice-chancellors, the committee is understood to have included former TCS CEO S Ramadurai. He has also served on the boards of several higher education institutions. The committee is expected to deliberate on all aspects related to ‘deemed to be universities’ but aligning them with NEP 2020 would be the key idea, those in the know told ET on the condition of anonymity.

NEP 2020 advocates a restructuring of higher education and recommends that the current “complex nomenclature of HEIs in the country such as ‘Deemed to be University’, ‘Affiliating University’, ‘Affiliating Technical University’, ‘Unity University’ simply by on fulfilling the criteria as per the ‘University’ norms”.

However, the nomenclature itself is bound up in the rulebooks and changing it will probably require some amendments – Section 23 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 prohibits the use of the word ‘University’ except in institutions established through Acts of Parliament. Is. or a state act.

On the other hand, Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956 allows conferring on an institution the status of ‘Deemed to be University’ and powers to award degrees. This nomenclature has also been the subject of court cases, academic debate, and numerous committee discussions.

The idea and system of deemed universities has indeed been hotly debated and heavily politicized. While UPA 1 was shaken by the then education minister Arjun Singh’s allegations of granting status to several deserving institutions, his successor Kapil Sibal ordered a review through the Tandon committee, which found 44 out of 126 deemed universities severely deficient. Went. Eligible to be ‘blacklisted’.

Stringent rules were brought in 2010 following the Tandon Committee report, but they were challenged in the courts. With the BJP coming to power in 2014, the rules were changed again in 2016, with Smriti Irani as a minister, and the 2010 rules relaxed. However, a second reform took place when the Department of the Ministry of Education was transferred to Prakash Javadekar.

Originally published at Pen 18