The new rules for ‘Deemed to be Universities’ in the country do away with the condition that an institution must have been in existence for at least 20 years, thus simplifying the process of granting the status. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan released the revised set of guidelines on Friday afternoon, describing the rules as “light, but tight”.
The regulations called the University Grants Commission (Institutions deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2023 have been replaced since 2019. The new rules have been prepared in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
“The regulations will facilitate creation of many more quality-oriented deemed universities in an objective and transparent manner. The new simplified guidelines will encourage universities to focus on quality and excellence, strengthen the research ecosystem and make a long-term impact in transforming our higher education landscape.
The first ‘Deemed to be’ rules were notified in the year 2010, and were amended in 2016 and 2019. With the announcement of NEP 2020, the UGC constituted an expert committee to review and amend the existing rules.
Under the new rules, the eligibility criteria for applying for deemed-to-be-university status is a National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) ‘A’ grade with at least 3.01 CGPA for three consecutive cycles, or National Accreditation Board (NBA) authorization for two-thirds of eligible programs for three consecutive cycles, or in the top 50 of a specific category of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) for the last three years, or overall NIRF ranking for the last three years in the top 100 for years in a row.
It also permits a group of institutions managed by more than one sponsoring body to apply for ‘Deemed to be University’ status.
Presently there are 126 such universities across the country.
UGC Chairman Professor M Jagadesh Kumar said that the norms are focused on quality. “We are hopeful that these regulations will encourage many more high quality higher education institutions to be set up in the country in emerging areas to meet the aspirations of our students,” Kumar said.
He said that since the phrase ‘Deemed to be Universities’ is part of the UGC Act, 1956, it is not possible to delete the phrase at this stage. “However, it will be superseded after the establishment of the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) through an Act of Parliament,” he said.
Both the students and the universities have repeatedly raised their objections to the term ‘Deemed to be’ used for conferring status to the institutions. The HECI Bill is yet to be introduced in Parliament. The Bill seeks to bring all regulatory bodies in the education sector under one common body.
As per the Regulations, the objectives of ‘Deemed to be Universities’, inter alia, include providing higher education leading to excellence in various branches of knowledge, primarily at the undergraduate, postgraduate and research degree levels, fully standards compliant. Conceptualizing a University, to strengthen the research ecosystem and contribute towards social change through socially responsible teaching, learning, research and fieldwork.
Sponsoring bodies seeking deemed-to-be-university status for their institutions can apply online. The expert committee assesses the facilities, interacts with the stakeholders, and verifies all the documents in virtual mode, the rules stated.
The institution being given this status can provide fee concession or scholarship or allot seats to meritorious students belonging to socially and economically disadvantaged groups of the society.
Also, such institutions, like other universities and colleges, will mandatorily create Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) identification of their students and upload their credit scores in the Digital Locker and ensure that the credit scores are reflected in the ABC portal. Yes and go for it. Samarth eGov Suite.