New Delhi, November 3
The Union Government has filed a report in the Supreme Court, sticking to its decision to de-recognise 44 deemed universities for providing poor quality of education in terms of faculty, infrastructure and innovation.

The Committee of Officers, which re-examined the standard of education imparted by these 44 institutions, “finds no reason to deviate from the conclusions” of the Committee of Academic Experts that had recommended stripping them of their deemed status, the report said.

The government had set up the committee to review its decision at the instance of the Supreme Court which is hearing a bunch of petitions filed by the affected universities. The institutions have challenged the government’s acceptance of the earlier report, contending that only the University Grants Commission (UGC) had the power to de-recognise them. It was the UGC which had recommended deemed status to them and as such it could be taken away only at UGC’s instance, they had argued.

Further, the move to strip them of their deemed status had been taken without giving them an adequate opportunity to present their case, they had maintained.

Three of the 44 affected Deemed Universities are in Haryana -- Lingaya’s University, Nachauli, Faridabad, Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Maulana, Ambala and Manav Rachna International University, Faridabad. Several such institutions are in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

As many as two lakh students are studying in these institutions. But the government has assured the SC that it would protect their interests by accommodating them in other institutions or by facilitating state government affiliation to the affected educational bodies which would once again become colleges in the event of de-recognition.

The experts committee had assessed the quality of the deemed universities on nine parameters. These include aspects of governance, quality of innovations in teaching and learning processes, research output and its impact, doctoral and other research degree programmes, faculty resources and the admission processes.