MHRD issues guidelines for deemed universities

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has issued guidelines to all deemed universities regarding the regulation of their fees, faculty performance and compulsory accreditation.

In a meeting chaired by Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, it was decided that for deemed universities, regulation of fees is to be done by the already constituted state-level fee committees. Moreover, a committee is to be constituted for formulating methodology and standards for benchmarking appraisal of faculty performance throughout the country and it has to submit its report in three months.

The ministry has also insisted on compulsory accreditation of institutions for University Grants Commission (UGC) grants.

The government has granted deemed unive-rsity status to 128 institu-tions by June this year, including 62 in the last five years.

Other guidelines for deemed universities and other higher educational institutions recognised by UGC, is to have a website in which full and complete disclosure of information would be furnished about them. These websites would contain information relating to availability of infrastructure and physical assets, grants-in-aid provided by the central or state government and its utilisation and the admission criteria.

The ministry also seeks information regarding details of faculty positions in each of the schools and the nature of their employment and the academic curricula in respect of the courses offered, whether degree or diploma.

Sibal has also asked for information regarding the fee structure, including all its components in both the regular mode and distance mode.

MHRD has also sought information on all study centres and its locations opened by the universities and institutions to impart distance education, on these websites.