The Union HRD ministry’s intent to derecognise 44 deemed universities (as per the controversial recommendations of the P.N. Tandon Committee), conveyed to the Supreme Court via an affidavit filed on January 18, has made the greatest impact in Tamil Nadu. For the simple reason that 16 of the 44 “doomed universities” are sited in this south-eastern seaboard state (pop. 62 million).
Among the well-known institutions of professional and higher education which are confronted with the prospect of reversion to collegiate status if not closure, are: The Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, promoted by Union minister of state for information and broadcasting S. Jagathrakshakan; Vel’s Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies and Vel Tech Engineering College, Chennai; Saveetha Dental College and Hospital and Saveetha Medical College and Hospital, Chennai; the Meenakshi Medical College and Research Institute, Padur.
Although Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal has repeatedly stated that withdrawal of the deemed varsity status of the 44 higher education institutions will not jeopardise the future of the 200,000 students enroled in them, there is widespread apprehension of disloca-tion of study programmes as some of the deemed varsities offer innovative new courses unavailable in government-run universities to which the derecognised deemed varsities will be re-affiliated. Moreover it’s an open secret that a large number of students enroled in deemed universities have paid (illegal) capitation fees for admission into avant-garde study programmes. These amounts are unlikely to be refunded if deemed universities are derecognised.
Mainstream academics are unsurprised and even approve of the HRD ministry/UGC volte face. They believe that most of the 16 institutions in Tamil Nadu were arbitrarily conferred the deemed university status for reasons other than merit and don’t deserve curriculum-setting, financial and examination autonomy. In particular, the credibility of some deemed universities offering engineering programmes has been badly damaged for having flouted prescribed norms and misusing their special status.
Nevertheless the HRD ministry’s unexpected statement of intent (affidavit) has caught the managements of the 16 impugned deemed varsities in the state off-balance. In the apex court, anguished counsel of the varsities have highlighted the contradiction between the reports of UGC inspection teams and the Tandon Committee. They pointed out that while the UGC review teams had given positive reports after thorough inspec-tion, the Tandon Committee had relied only on short powerpoint presentations made by repres-entatives of the impugned varsities, and recommended withdrawal of their deemed status without issuing show-cause notices to them.
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“The managements of affected varsities should have raised objections about the assessment methodology of the Tandon Committee at the time it was conducted. Moreover, it’s no secret that several deemed institutions have started unapproved off-campus centres and brought affiliated institutions within their ambit. Despite being aware of these violations, UGC failed to issue any warning to them or take action. UGC had also improperly conferred conditional deemed varsity status for a period of two-three years upon several institutions though they didn’t have adequate faculty or research facilities, subject to their making good this deficit. In the present instance too, the Tandon Committee should have given these 16 institutions notice and opportunity to correct their deficiencies before recommending derecognition. That would have served the cause of education and students better,” says R. Sethuraman, founder and vice chancellor of the SASTRA Deemed University, Thanjavur which is in the approved list of the Tandon Committee.
Quite clearly the Tandon Committee’s evaluation methodology which has prompted the unwarrantedly drastic action against 16 of Tamil Nadu’s 29 deemed universities is suspect and questionable. And this point is likely to be strongly argued by counsel of the state’s 16 deemed universities when the Supreme Court resumes hearing of the case in early March. Although dismayed, the managements of the “doomed universities” believe they can make a good case for the retention of their deemed varsity status.
Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)