Deemed university is a status of autonomy granted to high performing institutes and departments of various universities in India. It is granted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India. The deemed university status enables not just full autonomy in setting course work and syllabus of those institutes and research centers, but also allows it to set its own guidelines for the admissions, fees, and instructions to the students. [Source: Wikipedia]
Many private [read Engineering] colleges in Nagpur are vying to get this "Deemed University" status. If you read the last line of the above paragraph again, its easy to understand why these colleges are pushing hard for autonomy. So far, so fine.
But according to a recent central government order, the centre has allowed deemed-to-be universities to drop the prefix distinguishing them from varsities, granting the institutions the right to market themselves in a manner that could confuse prospective students and their parents. So now, a "Deemed" University can drop the deemed tag and market itself as a university. There is no need to carry the deemed tag in the prospectus or advertisements done by the "University". The only way left is to read the prospectus carefully and look for the fine line mentioning about the deemed status.
This is a well chalked out plan by people with vested interests - to confuse and cheat students & their parents.
A pertinent question is What is basis of granting "Deemed" status ?
Excerpts from speech of Minister of Human Resource Development, Arjun Singh (July 2006) :
An institution is declared as a `deemed to be university` by the Central Government under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956 on the advice of the Commission. The Commission has laid down guidelines for considering proposals from institutions. These guidelines, inter-alia, provide that the institution should be:
1) generally engaged in teaching programmes and research, which are innovative and of a very high academic standard;
2) capable of further enriching the university system;
3) competent to undertake application-oriented programmes in emerging areas of knowledge;
4) generally, in existence for ten years or more; however, those institutions which impart education in emerging areas with promise of excellence can be considered for a provisional status under the `de-novo` category
We wonder if this is the criteria that is followed or there is some other route to "Deemed" status. Next time you are out to take a admission in such "Universities", do verify the facts before taking the plunge. Read the fine line - question the authorities. Better be safe than sorry.
