Teachers' body for deemed tag only for univs with track record
Press Trust of India / New Delhi Jan 27, 2010, 13:38 IST
In the backdrop of the Supreme Court restraining the Centre from divesting 44 universities of their special "deemed university" status, a top teachers' body has suggested that such a status should be conferred only on varsities, which have a proven record of excellence and functioning for more than a decade.
Prof A James William, president, All India Federation of University and College Teachers' Organisations (AIFUCTO), said the government should distinguish between original deemed universities sanctioned before 1997 and de nova deemed universities sanctioned after that.
"Earlier the deemed university status was conferred on excellent institutions with proven record of excellence. But the de nova deemed universities conferred after 1998 have been self-financing professional colleges without any record of excellence," he told PTI.
As per the advice of HRD ministry's Tandon committee report, all the 44 deemed universities were facing derecognition.
Experts point out that the policy of privatisation, which resulted in the commercialisation of higher education especially professional education has led to the mushrooming of such universities in recent times.
Claiming that a big racket involving private players and politicians was behind the surge in the number of deemed universities, William said, "If the truth and the genesis have to be brought out, a proper and thorough enquiry should be ordered on the conferment of the deemed university status since 1997 and appropriate action taken there on.
"The AIFUCTO president was also critical of some government policies and says that more than the UGC and the AICTE, it was the Human Resource Development ministries of successive governments which "exploited the concept of the deemed university to favour institutions of their choice". On the earlier government decision to stop conferring the deemed university status, he lobbied that the original concept of conferring such a status on excellent institutions on specialised areas of study could be continued.
"For example, the Gandhigram Rural Institute in Dindigul in Tamil Nadu — a Central Institute — was conferred the deemed university status because it specialises in rural development. Similarly Shri Avinashilingam Deemed University, Coimbatore specialises in home science and other allied disciplines," says William.
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