Opinion Deemed universities: a concept gone haywire

Bibek Debroy<br> We think of a good idea,mess up its implementation and then scrap the idea. The HRD Ministry's website has a list of 123 deemed universities.

New DelhiMarch 7, 2009 05:21 PM IST First published on: Mar 7, 2009 at 05:21 PM IST

We think of a good idea,mess up its implementation and then scrap the idea. The HRD Ministry’s website has a list of 123 deemed universities. Roughly 10 years ago,the number of deemed universities was around 100. While there hasn’t been a large increase in number of deemed universities,there has been an increase in the number of applications. As many as 214 applications are pending with the UGC. The background is the UGC Act of 1956.

Actually,the background is even earlier. In 1948,Radhakrishnan Commission was set up on higher education and this gave birth to the deemed university idea,enshrined in the UGC Act. Till 1990s,deemed university status was rare. Although 18 institutions were added in 1980s and there was some dilution,deemed university status was still rare. But now,number of deemed universities has exploded.

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: first,there will be autonomy in deciding courses,syllabi and teaching methodology; second,there will be administrative autonomy; third,degrees can be granted without affiliation to any other university; fourth,a deemed university cannot be an affiliating university; fifth,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.

It cannot be denied the present recognition system is ad hoc and arbitrary,not transparent and objective. Prime Minister set up the Yash Pal Committee,due to submit its report by March 2009. From what one can gather,this committee will recommend an end to deemed university system. There seem to be two reasons — dilution of quality and high fees. It is because this recommendation is anticipated that there have been so many new applications for deemed university status,before recommendation bites. Most applications are from Tamil Nadu,Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Yash Pal Committee will also recommend a unified Higher Education Commission,replacing UGC and AICTE. However,originally,deemed university route was thought of because of a specific reason,to grant university status to institutions strong on research.