Footwear design school students continue protest

Reject offer of deemed university status to FDDI, want degrees instead of diplomas

Past and present students of the Footwear Design and Development Institute (FDDI), who protested near India Gate on Monday, remain anxious over their academic future after poking holes in the proposal by the government to accord the institute deemed university status.

Around 500 students of the institute protested in front of India Gate on Monday against government inaction regarding their long-standing demand to be granted degrees instead of diploma. The fate of nearly 4,000, students who have been awarded degree certificates which were subsequently ruled invalid, also hangs in the balance. Students have rejected the proposal to grant the institute deemed status as incomplete as it will not be applicable to past students.

The institute, set up in 1986 under the aegis of the Commerce Ministry, has been in the news since early 2015 when the University Grants Council (UGC) raised objection to an agreement between FDDI and Mewar University, which provided students of the 2012, 2013 and 2014 academic sessions with degree certificates. The UGC had termed the degrees as illegal after the AICTE stopped recognising these, leading to protests by students. The provisional certificate, which they have received in place of the cancelled degree, means little, said students. The issue, which had reached a stalemate since, erupted last month, when around 200 students of the Noida campus ransacked the premises and damaged two buses.

“The cancellation of the degrees is but a single incident in the long line of wrong policies executed by the institute,” said a student.

Mewar University was roped in only after the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), which had hitherto awarded degrees, discontinued from the 2012 academic session even as 1,250 students were enrolled for various programs, he added.

While Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had earlier said the matter was a legacy issue, the ministry had been eager to resolve the current crisis, holding a series of consultations with the ministries and departments concerned. A proposal to grant the institute deemed status was sent to the ministry on May 5, which will be forwarded to the Human Resource Development ministry and UGC, said a FDDI official. He said the process might take months.

THE FDDI CONTROVERSY

• 1986: FDDI established under the Commerce Ministry
• 2012: FDDI signs an agreement with Mewar University to provide students with degrees
• Sept, 2015: UGC says degrees invalid as AICTE recognition absent
• Apr 21, 2015: 200 Noida campus students protest
• May 4, 2016: Hundreds of students protest at Jantar Mantar
• May, 5: Delhi High Court directs officials to resolve the issue fast; FDDI officials say proposal to make it an Institute of National Importance forwarded to PMO, awaiting introduction in Cabinet
• May 9: Students protest at India Gate

However, deemed status might be difficult to get as  the UGC (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations-2010 says the applicant institute should have a track record of not having violated any of UGC’s provisions for at least five years.

The issue of students without proper degrees also might not be solved, student leader Sandeep Priyadarshi said. “In spite of FDDI saying deemed status will also benefit previous batches, UGC regulations clearly state that updated academic norms will only be binding on students enrolled with the institute when the deemed status is given.”

Another option had been broached for the institute, being declared an institute of national importance. Officials at FDDI stated the decision had received clearance from several central departments and has been forwarded to the Prime Ministers office and is waiting to be introduced in the Cabinet.However, no date has been conveyed to them, said students who had protested at Jantar Mantar last week too, adding the lack of clear communication from the government as frustrating.

The institute is considered the premier destination for footwear technology and leather accessory design. Apart from the main campus in Noida, it has 11 other campuses spread across the country, including in Chandigarh, Kolkata and Hyderabad.