Straying from the visionary concept

According to Section 3 of the University Grant Commissions (UGC) Act, 1956, a ‘deemed’ university is one which is administratively autonomous in the sense that it does not need to abide by the rules and regulations of any other university on administrative matters. It can also award degrees under its own name, instead of that of a university to which it is affiliated. Moreover, a deemed university cannot be a purely teaching institution. Research has to be an integral part of its activities.

From 1956 to 1990, in the initial 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 Regional Engineering Colleges have been notified as deemed universities. As per the record of the Department of Higher Education, Government of in India, there are more than 109 deemed universities in India today.

As is very conspicuous from the aforementioned statistics, deemed universities have mushroomed all over our country now. This has, in turn, caused the efficiency of the education system in India to go swooping down. A visionary concept of having them has fallen prey to narrow personal interests today. The provision in the UGC Act for granting deemed university status has not been followed in spirit. Section 3 of the UGC Act confers wide and unguided power on the executive, which was in violation of the Act. The fresh news is that as many as 44 of these universities are on the brink of being de-recognized. 16 of these universities belong to Tamil Nadu alone, 15 of them private and one government sponsored. The government has ruled that these are not worthy of their ‘deemed university’ status and should be de-recognized. The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry, however, is confident that it has a foolproof case in the apex court. Highly placed sources have said the 44 deemed universities should not hope that a clean chit by UGC's review committee (separate from the HRD ministry's panel) can help them challenge the recommendation seeking removal of `deemed' status. The Supreme Court recently issued notices asking the Centre to respond to a petition seeking to end the UGC’s powers to accord deemed university status.

All this has come after several complaints were made, questioning the quality and authenticity of many of the deemed universities. According to reports, these institutions, which have been recognized as deemed universities, in turn, indulge in conferring degrees by making profit instead of being interested in imparting education to the students enrolled with them. This leaves the serious students feeling deceived by a body which was not able to educate them in the first place. The course structure of these universities was never up to the mark. The worst part of the story is that the students who enroll themselves in such universities are charged exorbitant amounts in the name of fees. For such varsities, education has become like a full-fledged and an extremely profitable business. They have compromised on the quality and cost-effectiveness, thereby inviting trouble for themselves. Most of them have turned out to be low grade physical structures, without impressive intellectual caliber.

Although the HRD minister has assured the students of these 44 universities that they have no cause for worry as they will be granted their degrees. Around two lakh students who study in these universities feel that the ministry is making false claims and are playing with their careers. To an extent, their argument is valid. If these universities are eventually de-recognized, its students will be placed in a very precarious situation. In fact this is an irony that they had taken admission here to build their careers, but unfortunately these institutions are now on the verge of ruining their academic lives.

Amidst all the controversies related to the deemed universities, we must not forget that not all of them are of low grade. Some of them, like the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, the Birla Institute of Technology, Pilani, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, etc., are renowned for imparting high quality education to its students. Students from overseas too flock in these universities to study. While doing away with the bad ones, the government must not harass the good ones. The need of the hour is to keep an eye on the functioning of all the deemed universities, reward the ones which are doing well and eliminate the ones which are engaging themselves in fraudulent activities. This will ensure that they do not stray from the visionary concept, with which they were brought into existence.