The Commerce and Industry Ministry has recommended to the HRD Ministry to grant deemed university status to Footwear Design and Development Institute (FDDI) whose students are demanding that they be given degrees instead of diplomas.
"The Department of Commerce has forwarded the proposal for conferment of status of deemed university status to FDDI to the HRD Ministry," an official said, adding the process may take a few months.
This decision was taken at a meeting of the inter-ministerial panel, the official said, adding it would enable FDDI to grant degrees to students at all its campuses.
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Keen to resolve the issue, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has held about a dozen of consultation meetings on the matter with the concerned ministries, departments, students and their parents.
Around 200 students of FDDI in Noida went on a rampage last month, ransacking the premises and damaging two buses, in protest against alleged failure of the institute to give them degrees instead of diplomas.
FDDI had signed an MoU with Mewar University in 2012 for awarding degrees. But last year, UGC had termed the MoU as illegal, sparking off protests by students.
From 2012 and 2014, around 3,609 students had taken admission in the institute.
Sitharaman had said the matter is an "issue in legacy. We inherited something which was not of our making."
The issue cropped up after the University Grants Commission (UGC) declared that Mewar University cannot award degrees to FDDI students.
The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) used to grant degrees for all courses at the institute, but it discontinued the same in 2012 academic session even as 1,250 students were enrolled for various graduate and post-graduate programmes.
FDDI roped in Mewar University of Rajasthan to offer degree programmes from academic session 2012. However, UGC in September 2014 raised questions on the MoU between FDDI and Mewar University for grant of degree to FDDI students registered for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 in light of the AICTEs non-recognition of these degrees.
