Fresh inspection of Universities deemed `unworthy' in 2009
2017-06-12Offering hope to 44 deemed universities, the ministry of human resource development has asked the University Grants Commission (UGC) to conduct fresh inspection. These deemed universities came under the scanner in 2009 following an adverse report by a government panel and uncertainty on their status has continued since then.
Eight years back, MHRD set up the Tandon Committee to examine 126 deemed universities. The committee in its report found 46 of them “unworthy“ of being given a deemed university status. Another 44 were found deficient on many counts while the performance of 38 was found satisfactory .
Uncertainty over the “deemed“ status of these institutions across the country continued till date and some of these universities even sought legal recourse.
According to a senior HRD official, “The government wants that there should be some clarity as the matter has been on for a long time. Therefore the ministry has once again asked UGC to conduct fresh inspections so that which even of these universities can be allowed to retain the deemed status can do so. And also this will ensure that others are removed from the list and the matter is fully resolved.“
The committee in its report recommended immediate withdrawal of the “deemed university“ status from the institutions found unworthy . However, some institutions moved court, and the matter is still subjudice. The Tandon committee had assessed each institute on 45 marks. Institutions that scored less than 15 were labelled unworthy .
These 44 institutions were originally colleges and were granted deemed university status by the then government.
“The government wants the quality of education to improve across institutions. Therefore, this fresh inspection will also offer an opportunity to those institutions to make a fresh claim that they are `worthy' of the deemed status. The government wants everything in competitive mode and same with the institutions,“ said the HRD official.
This order to UGC comes close on the heels of the ministry ordering academic and research audit of 11“non-performing“ centrally funded institutions, which includes Aligarh Muslim University , Allahabad University , Pondicherry University and Central University of Jammu.
“The idea is not to be punitive, but to identify the weaknesses so that the universities can work to improve,“ said the official.
(As reported in ToI)