Minister to decide on new norms for deemed varsities

One of the first decisions that Kapil Sibal will have to take will be on implementing stricter regulations for according 'deemed university'...

One of the first decisions that Kapil Sibal will have to take will be on implementing stricter regulations for according deemed university and de novo status to institutes.

Finalised and approved by the University Grants Commission (UGC),the new norms propose to change academic,logistical and administrative parameters for according deemed university status. The proposed regulations are more stringent. An institute will have to first be accredited by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) or by the National Assessment & Accreditation Council (NAAC) to be eligible for a deemed university status. That alone will be key to bringing in quality academic standards to deemed universities, a senior official said. It has also been proposed to put a cap on student intake,insist on five postgraduate departments and increasing the deposit amount made by the institute with the Government.

Deemed varsities will also have to commit to a fixed teacher-student ratio expected to be between 1:20 and 1:30 for general undergraduate courses and from 1:20 to 1:15 for PG courses. There are also norms proposed by us for infrastructure,land availability,academic parameters,faculty members,faculty student ratio and so on. Also,each institute will have to deposit an amount substantially higher than the current Rs 5 crore as deposit to ensure that in case such an institute fails and shuts down,the UGC is able to pay the faculty members and also ensure students are transferred to other institutes at the same fees, a UGC official told The Indian Express.

As far as the de novo status is concerned,while there are UGC guidelines so far on according the status to institutes offering uncommon and important disciplines and with 10 years of functioning,the Commission wants these guidelines to be formalised into binding regulations.

The Ministry is in the final leg of processing these regulations,which after the approval will be notified by the UGC.