Sibal to review status of deemed varsities

June 8, 2009: The Times of India

New Delhi: The fate of “deemed universities¶ which have mushroomed lately appears to be hanging in balance, with HRD minister Kapil Sibal saying that the review of their status will be a comprehensive exercise. 

Talking to TOI, Sibal said, “The power of exemption from the provisions of the UGC Act (which stipulates that a university can be set up only under an act enacted by the Centre or states) cannot be exercised arbitrarily. We need to satisfy ourselves that such exercise of power was fair, reasonable and just.¶ Assuring that the interests of students of the institutions would be protected, he further said, “It is the duty of HRD ministry to satisfy itself whether the norms and criteria necessary for grant of deemed-to-be university status have been met with and adhered to, and more particularly whether the de novo deemed-to-be universities were set up in a way consistent with provisions of the UGC Act.¶ Sibal parried a question on what led him to order the probe. 

Sources, however, said it was a spate of complaints about the rampant abuse of the “deemed university¶ clause in the UGC Act that led the minister to order order a wide-ranging review after he took charge. According to the UGC website, there are 124 deemed universities which have been accorded approvals and while some of these are reputed institutions like Jamia Hamdard and Delhi School of Planning and Architecture, there are several which have sprung up overnight and are connected to politicians. These universities are now under the scanner. 

Under Section 3 of the UGC Act, deemed-tobe university status is granted by the Centre to “educational institutions of repute who fulfil prescribed standards¶. While the provision has facilitated the rapid growth private education sector, it has provided a window to politicians to create a web of money-spinning institutions. The grant of “deemed¶ universities often represented, according to sources, a nexus of political patronage and private interests as many persons on various UGC committees are involved in running professional colleges themselves. So, there were instances of those involved in the certification process for a deemed university also being linked to universities that stood to benefit. The consequence is that the de novo exception has been used to claim certification in rarified niche research areas where few existing Indian universities can claim any experience. In some cases, the certification has been granted even in absence of physical infrastructure. The ‘tag’ was then used to arrange capital and land to set up an institution. 

Ministry sources said the move to clean up UGC’s Augean stables is the first step towards putting in place a transparent system of affiliation and standards. The loopholes presented in UGC Act have led to private universities first having to work through a corrupt system to gain recognition and then extracting capitation fees from students. Not surprisingly, several politicians have promoted professional medical and engineering colleges. In recent years, courts have been flooded with petitions against arbitrary grant of recognition to new colleges as well as for speciality disciplines. In a case pending before the Delhi HC, 24 dental colleges have been issued notices on a plea that norms were violated. In a case that came up before SC, the Centre first opposed recognition to an Indore medical college and then came back a week later to claim that it was satisfied that norms regarding infrastructure had been met.

‘Deemed university’ even before admissions open

Institutes With No Track Record Get Autonomy

Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, one of the two Chennai-based institutions found charging illegal donations by a TOI-Times Now investigation, began offering the MBBS course in 2002, the same year that it received ‘deemed university’ status. Using the autonomy, the college designed its own courses, syllabus and teaching methodologies. Five years later, it awarded degrees to doctors under its own name.

Chennai: The investigation into capitation fees demanded by private medical colleges in violation of a Supreme Court order has brought into focus the rampant proliferation of deemed universities which enjoy complete freedom on admission rules and fee structures with little oversight. The last five years have seen deemed university status conferred on 55 medical colleges nationwide, raising doubts among experts on the calibre of some of the institutions that have profited from the status. In comparison, only 29 colleges were granted this privilege in the first 35 years after the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act came into effect in 1956, and another 40 in the period between 1991 and 2004. 

What started as a method to recognise institutions that contributed to the Independence movement and slowly assumed the form of a distinction granted on the basis of an institution’s standing and ability to govern, has now become questionable, at least in some cases as the TOITimes Now expose on capitation fees has shown. In TN, three colleges were given the status even before they started their admission process. 

Academicians and advocates say the root of the problem is the lack of clarity in the UGC Act in defining criteria for a deemed university. 

“The Act does not spell out prerequisites for getting the status. The original idea of a deemed university was to honour colleges of stature and maturity at the time of Independence. Today, it is on sale,¶ said a senior academician. 

In all, the country now has 124 deemed universities. Tamil Nadu tops the list with 29. In the last five years, 15 of the 55 universities accorded the status were from TN; of the remaining, nine were from Karnataka, which has thus increased its tally of deemed institutions to 14, and five were from Maharashtra, which now boasts of 21 in all. 

The three states put together account for more than half the approvals granted in the UPA’s previous tenure when Arjun Singh was HRD minister and account for more than half the total number of deemed universities. Of the rest, Delhi has 11, UP nine and Andhra Pradesh six.

The power of exemption from the provisions of the UGC Act cannot be exercised arbitrarily… It is the duty of the HRD ministry to satisfy itself whether the norms for grant of deemed-university status have been met with and adhered to
Kapil Sibal | UNION HRD MINISTER