Centre tells SC there’s no scope for improvement

Forty-four institutions of higher learning in the country, blacklisted by the Centre for not fulfilling the UGC criteria on deemed university, are all set to lose their “deemed” tag.

An affidavit filed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in the Supreme Court has said that a Committee of Officers set up to review the deficiencies in the 44 institutions has concluded there is no scope of improvement in their functioning.

Testing the institutions on nine parameters considered essential requisites for a deemed university, the Committee gave personal notice to each university to come clean. After hearing them, the Committee arrived at the conclusion that all 44 were to be de-notified. The Centre has now approached the SC for the same.

The affidavit of the Centre has strengthened the hands of the Supreme Court to seal the fate of these institutions. The case is listed for hearing on November 27. The Committee constituting three officials of the HRD Ministry went through the findings of the Review Committee, headed by Professor PN Tandon and found no reason to deviate from the earlier result to hold these blacklisted institutions as deficient.

The Tandon Committee had initially examined all 126 deemed universities in the country and classified them into three categories — A, B and C. The lot of 44 fell in Category C, while Category A and B were allowed to continue.

The affidavit by the Centre has reiterated demand to de-notify the 44 institutions, many of which are renowned centres of learning. For instance, the Nava Nalanda Mahavihara in Bihar; Rajiv Gandhi National Youth Development Institute at Tamil Nadu; National Museum, Institute of History, Art, Conservation, and Musicology, New Delhi; all which are Government-funded. Among the privately-owned institutions in the list, the better known are Gurukul Kangri in Haridwar, Dr MGR Educational and Research Institute at Chennai, DY Patil Medical College in Maharashtra, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology at Noida, Manav Rachna International University in Faridabad, Vinayaka Mission in Tamil Nadu, and lingaya’s University

in Faridabad. The Committee had submitted its report to the Centre on October 21, 2011. The nine parameters on which the 44 institutions were tested included conformity to UGC Guidelines, aspects of governance, innovations in teaching, research output and impact, doctoral and research programmes, faculty resources, admission processes, award of degrees, among others.

The Government affidavit emphasised that ‘deemed’ status is of a special nature where excellence is the single-most criteria found missing in all 44. The Committee gave a score of 4,3,2,1, to each institution depending on how they fared against each parameter. “Even with this marking system, there was practically no change in the overall grading of the deemed to be universities,” the affidavit added.

RENOWNED CENTRES

Nalanda Mahavihara in Bihar

Rajiv Gandhi National Youth Development Institute at Tamil Nadu

National Museum, Institute of History, Art, Conservation, and Musicology,

New Delhi

Gurukul Kangri in Haridwar

Dr MGR Educational and Research Institute at Chennai

DY Patil Medical College in Maharashtra

Jaypee Institute of Information Technology at Noida

Manav Rachna International University in Faridabad

Vinayaka Mission in Tamil Nadu

lingaya’s University in Faridabad