Posted On : 30-MAR-2010

The deemed university status enables not just full autonomy in setting course work and syllabus of those institutes and research centers, but also allows it to set its own guidelines for the admissions, fees, and instructions to the students.

Hundreds of deemed universities have sprouted across the country, but if the report of the Yash Pal committee appointed by the prime minister, is accepted and implemented, there will be no more such universities.

If number of institutions of higher education increases, that should be a good thing. However, should one do that through deemed university route?

UGC's guidelines for becoming deemed university are vague. But presumably, following criteria should be satisfied:

1.there will be autonomy in deciding courses, syllabi and teaching methodology;
2.there will be administrative autonomy;
3.degrees can be granted without affiliation to any other university;
4. a deemed university cannot be an affiliating university;
5. a deemed university cannot purely be engaged in teaching, there must be research.

Deemed university status also means funds become available through the UGC.

Most institutes now obtaining deemed university status are colleges earlier affiliated to universities and offered standard under-graduate and post-graduate programmes. It is doubtful they were ever meant to obtain deemed university status. Is one mixing up two different concepts of autonomous colleges and deemed universities? There is another reason why colleges try to become deemed universities, because that takes fees and other academic issues outside the purview of state legislatures.
 

SHOULD WE SEE A BETTER GROWTH NOW
In the traditional system, many institutions faced bottlenecks in their growth due to the affiliation system with one university or the other for any new programs and courses any institute wanted to start/offer. Undue delays and non-approval of their new programmers, coupled with the regulatory mechanism of the university system and the obtrusiveness of its hierarchy, held them back from further progress. Hence, to provide sufficient autonomy and make provision for their speedy developments of academic programmes, the deemed-to-be university was brought about.

Deemed university system has become exploitative. These institutes charge huge fees, but have not been successful in providing quality education to our students. Besides, most members feel that they give a very different projection of the university system,” said a committee member.

Between 1956 and 1990, in 35 years, only 29 institutions were granted the deemed university status. In the last 15 years, 63 institutions were declared deemed universities and particularly in the last 5 years, 36 institutions excluding RECs have been notified as deemed universities.

Universities having deemed university status are known and recognized for their quality education.