New Delhi:
The Centre told the Supreme Court on Monday that it has decided to withdraw the "deemed" status to 44 universities in the country, alleging these were being run as family fiefdoms rather than on academic considerations.
However, to avoid jeopardising the future of nearly two lakhs students enrolled in these universities spread over 13 states, they would be allowed to revert back as affiliated colleges of their original universities, the Centre said in an affidavit.
The affidavit filed by Ministry of Human Resource and Development said the government has accepted the recommendations made in this regard by the high-powered P N Tandon committee and the Special Task Force set up to suggest measures to tackle the problem.
"The Review Committee came across several aberrations in the functioning of some of the institutions deemed to be universities. It found undesirable management architecture where families rather than professional academics controlled the functioning of institutions," the affidavit said.
According to the Centre, most of the 44 erring deemed universities were offering post-graduate and undergraduate courses that are "fragmented with concocted nomenclatures" and seats "disporortionately" increased beyond the actual intake capacity.
The Centre's affidavit comes in the backdrop of the apex court's direction on a PIL on action against several so-called deemed universities operating on purely commercial lines and violating all academic standards and norms.
The high-powered committee and the task force had arrived at the findings after evaluating the functioning of 126 deemed universities in the countries. While 44 of them were found unfit to retain the deemed status, 44 others have been given directions to fill up the lacuna in their respective functioning to enable them retain the status. In the case of 38 others, the committee found them to be up to the mark.
"Many institutions which attained deemed university status from being a college increased their intake capacity disproportionately and in some cases, exponentially, in relation to the qualified faculty strength and other academic infrastructure.
"The committee found that in several institutions undergraduate and postgraduate programmes had been fragmented with concocted nomenclatures. Several institutions have prescribed fee structures considerably higher than those recommended by the official fee structure committees," the Centre stated.
According to the Centre, the task force has recommended that the 44 deemed universities which are to be de-recognised "should revert status quo ante as an affiliated college of the state university of jurisdiction so that students would be able to complete their ongoing courses and obtain degree from the affiliating university.
The decision applies to all such proposed de-recognised deemed varsities including medical and dental, the government said. A bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and A K Patnaik adjourned the hearing on the matter for a week to enable the petitioner Viplav Sharma to file his response.
Following are the universities which are to be stripped of their deemed status:
- Christ College, Bangalore
- Vignan's Foundation for Science, Technology and Research, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh
- Lingaya's University, Faridabad
- St Peter's Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai
- Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education, Kanyakumari
- Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida
- Shobhit Institute of Engineering and Technology, Meerut
- Sumandeep Vidyapeet, Vadodara, Gujarat
- Sri Devraj Urs Academy of Higher Education and Reserch, Kolar, Karnataka
- Yenepoya University, Mangalore
- BLDE University, Bijapur, Karnataka
- Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Satara, Maharashtra
- D Y Patil Medical College, Kolhapur, Maharashtra
- Meenakshi Academy of Higher Education and Research, Chennai
- Chettinad Academy of Research and Education, Kanchipuram
- HIHT University, Dehradun
- Santosh University, Ghaziabad
- Maharshi Markandeshwar University, Ambala, Haryana
- Manav Rachna International University, Faridabad
- Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education, Tumkur, Karnataka
- Jain University, Bangalore
- Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, Pune
- Siksha "O" Anusandha, Bhubaneswar
- Janardan Rai Nagar, Udaipur, Rajasthan
- Institute of Advanced Studies in Education of Gandhi Vidya Mandir, Sardarshahr, Rajasthan
- Mody Institute of Technology, Sikar, Rajasthan
- Dr MGR Educational and Research Institute, Chennai
- Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai
- Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Virdhunagar, Tamil Nadu
- Periryar Maniammai Institute of Science and Technology, Thanjavur
- Academy of Maritime Education and Training, Chennai
- Vel's Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies, Chennai
- Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Coimbatore
- Vel Tech Rangaraja Dr Sagunthal R&D Institute of Science, Chennai
- Gurukul Kangri, Haridwar
- Grapich Era University, Dehradun
- Nehru Gram Bharati Vishwavidyalaya, Allahabad
- Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, Puducherry
- Vinayaka Mission's Research Foundation, Salem, Tamil Nadu
- Bharath Institute of Higher Education And Research, Chennai
- Ponnaiya Ramajayam Institute of Science and Technology, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu
- Nava Nalanda Mahavira, Nalanda, Bihar
- Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu
- National Museum, Institute of the History of Art Conservation and Musicology, Janpath, New Delhi