By Sanjiv Dube
NEW DELHI : On June 25 the vice-chancellors of various Deemed Universities agreed in principle to accept the uniform accounting standards devised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and gave a reluctant nod to Kapil Sibal's single test engineering admission plan.

The meeting was held here under the Chairmanship of Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal on June 25 to brief the VCs about the Joint Entrance Examination and to appeal to them to implement uniform accounting standards.

In his inaugural address, the minister suggested setting up of a Council for all the deemed universities to co-ordinate matters of common interest with representation of Vice Chancellors, prominent academicians and UGC/MHRD.

The minister explained the concept of the proposed JEE and invited them to  join it. Deemed universities, he said, would be free to choose appropriate weightage for Class XII Boards and JEE MAIN/ AIEEE normalised on percentile basis. Those wanting to give 100% weightage to Class XII Board marks performance for admission were also welcome.

At present, several deemed universities conduct their own entrance tests, while some adopt AIEEE scores and the rest take state Common Entrance Exam results.

Sibal clarified that their involvement will not affect the management quota as also reservation for the weaker sections of the society. Top HRD officials from technical and higher education department were also present in the meeting.

The second presentation was on adoption of uniform accounting  standards in all deemed universities. It was decided to organize the Capacity Building Programme, on uniform accounting standards through UGC and its adoption by deemed universities in collaboration with ICAI. A standard e-package of the accounting system would be provided to all the educational institutions including deemed universities.

UGC Regulations for Deemed University

SC allows more time to doomed deemed varsities

NEW DELHI : On April 11 the Supreme Court once again allowed the 44 condemned deemed universities to have their way. It allowed them to enjoy their deemed university status till July 19 thereby meaning that they could go ahead with admissions for the 2011-12 session starting in June.

The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma posted the hearing for July 19, extending till then its order restraining the government on an objection raised by one of the institutions, the J R N Rajasthan Vidyapeeth deemed university, contending that Sunil Kumar IAS was the Convenor of the P N Tandon Committee, which had recommended the de-recognition of these institutions after finding that they lacked proper faculty and infrastructural facilities.

The apex court also effectively eliminated the role of the Tandon Committee in the process of re-assessment by directing the A.S. Thakur committee to hear the 44 institutions and submit its report to the government, which in turn would prepare “a reasoned report” and hand it over to the court for deciding their status.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Indira Jaisingh, appearing for the Centre, had sought three months additional time - one month for the Thakur committee to hear the 44 institutions, another to finalise its recommendations and a further one month for the government to prepare its report based on the panel’s recommendations.

The Thakur committee comprising Additional Secretary A.S. Thakur (Technical Education), Sunil Kumar, Additional Secretary (Higher Education) and N.K. Sinha, Additional Secretary (Technology Enabled Learning) was given six weeks to submit its inspection report to the government and further four weeks were allowed to the ministry to submit a report to the court.
 
Meanwhile, the bench directed that the government should exclude Mr Sunil Kumar from the committee of the HRD ministry probing into the case as he himself had declined to be a member of the panel.

MHRD secys to hear 44 deemed varsities' plea

From Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Three additional secretaries of the Union Human Resource Development Ministry have been deputed to hear each of the 44 deemed universities found unfit to retain the deemed university status so that the ministry could prepare a report for the apex court which is to hear the case on April 25.

Additional Secretary A.S. Thakur (Technical Education) would head the team while Sunil Kumar, Additional Secretary (Higher Education) and N.K. Sinha, Additional Secretary (Technology Enabled Learning) would be the members of the team.

The team has been set up on the orders of the Supreme Court (on January 11) which said that the damned 44 deemed universities deserve a chance to be heard before their deemed university status is scrapped.

The Ministry has issued notices to the universities and their response will be forward to the review team. The comments of the review team will then be communicated to the universities.

Each institution will be individually heard by the three-member team of officials which will prepare a reasoned report and, thereafter prepare a comprehensive report, which shall be submitted to the Supreme Court.

A review committee comprising P.N. Tandon, Mrinal Miri, Goverdhan Mehta and Anandakrishnan had reviewed the deemed-to-be-universities and divided them in three categories.

As many as 44 such universities were found unfit to become deemed university on an aggregate assessment.

List of varsities facing action
NEW DELHI : The following are the universities which are to be stripped of their deemed status: 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; 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; 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; Graphic 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 & 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 and National Museum, Institute of the History of Art Conservation and Musi cology, Janpath, New Delhi.

Backgrounder : SC relief to 44 doomed varsities

NEW DELHI : In a major relief to over two lakh students, the Supreme Court directed the Union Human Resource Development Ministry on January 25, last year to maintain “status quo” on its decision on the 44 condemned deemed universities till the matter was taken up for further hearing on March 8, 2010.

“We shall not pass any ex parte orders,” a two-judge bench headed by Justice Dalveer Bhandari said. “They (the institutions) will be heard. No student or institution’s interests will be affected,” it added, issuing notices to to all 44 deemed universities to present their case and fixing the next hearing for March 8, 2010.

Hearing arguments in Viplav Sharma vs Union of India case the bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and A.K. Patnaik said that till then “status quo” will be maintained on the government order, which means the HRD Ministry’s order will be in suspended animation.

The institutions face de-recognition after P N Tandon committee report slammed them for poor performance and bad management. The committee said that they were being run as family fiefs rather than on academic considerations.

Acting on the recommendations, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) had said on January 18 that it was planning to withdraw the deemed status to the 44 institutions — which were among the 126 that had been granted such a tag by former HRD minister Arjun Singh.

The court directed the Attorney-General, Mr Goolam E. Vahanvati, to place before it the report of the task force set up by the HRD minister, Mr Kapil Sibal, to examine the functioning of 126 deemed universities as well as the report of the review committee as the ministry had acted on the recommendations of these two panels.

It further directed Mr Vahanvati to submit an affidavit on the steps the ministry proposed to take to safeguard the interests of over two lakh students of these 44 deemed universities.

This order, with multiple directions, came after a battery of the country’s top legal brains, appearing for different deemed universities, assailed the MHRD action, citing several “loopholes”. The court was hearing a pending PIL by advocate Viplav Sharma, challenging the grant of deemed university status to several institutions by the former HRD minister, Mr Arjun Singh, in a “reckless” manner.

Senior advocates — Mr Fali S. Nariman, Mr K. Parasaran, Mr K.K. Venugopal, Mr Rajiv Dhawan and others took on the government, saying it had acted merely on the reports of the task force and review committee despite these bodies having no statutory status, while recommendations of the University Grants Commission, a statutory body, were overlooked.

Assuring students and the universities, the bench said: “Presently our anxiety is what will happen to all those students. Public interest is paramount. When the matter is before court, the government cannot do anything. We ourselves want to look into it. If there is any violation of the principles of natural justice, we will look into it. Rest assured, nothing will
happen to your institutions and your students till we dispose the matter.”

Appearing for the MHRD, Vahanvati sought two weeks to file a comprehensive reply on the issue. He said the government was fully conscious of the uncertainties that the students studying in these universities might face.

The Arguments

“It is the UGC, a statutory body, which recommends whether such status is granted or taken away,” said senior lawyer Rajeev Dhavan. “It cannot be taken away on the recommendation of a non-statutory body,” he said, speaking on behalf of one of the institutions.

Others pointed out that the 44 deemed universities set to lose their status had been praised by the UGC. The court then directed the government to produce the reports of the UGC, the Tandon panel and the task force set up to implement the Tandon committee proposals.

Tremors in Higher Education

After a gap of five years country's Higher Education sector experienced  another set of tremors on January 18 -- like the ones experienced after the Chattisgarh universities case judgement in which 112 private universities were scrapped by the Supreme Court in one go.

The new tremors were caused by Human Resource Development Ministry's decision to banish 44 deemed universities (listed above) owned by powerful politicians and influential businessmen in the country.

On January 18 the MHRD under, Mr Kapil Sibal, in a virtual rebuff to his predecessor, Mr Arjun Singh's policy of conferring "deemed university" status to 126 institutions, submitted in the Supreme Court that only 36 institutions were fully qualified to be upgraded while 44 "deemed universities" have "abysmal" infrastructure facilities and that their deemed university status needs to be withdrawn.

In its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court in Viplav Sharma vs Union of India case, the government submitted the  P N Tandon committee report, which lists 44 erring institutions for de-recognition. Of these, the highest 16 are in Tamil Nadu, followed by 6 in Karnataka, 4 in Uttar Pradesh, 3 each in Haryana and Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan, and one each in Gujarat, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry and New Delhi.

Of the deficient institutions, 41 are privately managed, and three are government funded, including Nava Nalanda Mahavihara in Nalanda, Bihar; Rajiv Gandhi National Youth Development Institute, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu; and National Institute of the History of Art, Conservation and Museology, New Delhi.

The de-recognition move, if it comes through following the SC intervention, would affect the futures of over 2 lakh students, with 2,03,322 currently pursuing courses with the erring institutions. Accordingly, the task force constituted to implement the committee recommendations has said that the erring universities could seek affiliation to the state university of their jurisdiction to enable students to complete courses. “Existing colleges not found suitable to continue should revert to their status as affiliated college of the state university of jurisdiction to enable the students to finish courses and obtain degrees,” the task force said.

It has further advised the government to make every effort to facilitate migration or re-enrolment of the students to equivalent courses in other institutions in case their own institution, after losing its deemed tag, is unable to attain affiliation of the state university concerned.

The government counsel told Justices Dalveer Bhandari and A.K. Patnaik that while approving deemed university status to only 36 institutions, 44 others had been put on "watch list" for three years to see whether they improve their standard, infrastructure and teaching facilities.

The universities run by some of the top guns in Tamil Nadu, such as Union minister S. Jagathrakshakan, AIADMK Lok Sabha member M. Thambidurai and the Dravida Kazhagam leader K. Veeramani have been recommended for withdrawal of the "deemed university" status by the ministry, as the state earned the dubious distinction of earning the "highest score" of 16 of its
varsities in the national `black-list' of 44.

The 44 institutions which will lose their deemed varsity status have violated the guidelines prescribing excellence in teaching and research or innovations, and introduced unrelated degree programmes beyond the mandate of the grant of the status, the MHRD council told the court.

In the affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, the MHRD said that the Prof. P N Tandon Committee found that with the notable exception of some publicly funded institutions, none of them could produce evidence of quality research, going by publications in leading journals.

Many institutions, which attained the deemed university status from being colleges, increased their intake disproportionately and, in some cases, exponentially in relation to the qualified faculty strength and academic infrastructure. Several institutions prescribed fees considerably higher than that recommended by official committees.

The decision on according affiliation to and registering students enrolled in the 44 institutions with the relevant State university for the purpose of award of degrees would be taken up in consultation with the State governments.

Regarding foreign institutions, the affidavit said: “The Centre is in the process of finalising a legislative proposal for regulating the entry and operations of foreign education providers and the same has to be introduced in Parliament after obtaining necessary approval within the government.”

The Centre was awaiting the final report of the Task Force on the draft regulations submitted by the University Grants Commission for declaring institutions deemed universities. The guidelines, after consideration by the Centre, would be conveyed to the UGC for being notified, the affidavit said.