UGC finds 7 deemed varsities ‘unworthy’, spares 34 blacklisted earlier

The University Grants Commission on Monday recommended withdrawal of the deemed university certification to seven higher education institutions in the country, even as it spared 34 others among 41 such institutions blacklisted in a government report in 2009.

The higher education regulator approved the report of a committee headed by vice-chairman H Devraj that examined the performance of the 41 institutions and recommended withdrawal of the deemed university status of eight of them for poor academic output.

The four-member committee, headed by H Devraj, with Sanjya Dhade and VS Chauhan - both academicians and UGC members - and Amita Sharma, an additional secretary in the HRD ministry (who retired last month) as members reviewed the functioning of each of the 41 deemed universities.

Of the seven institutions that were found to be ''unworthy'' both by the new committee and the Tandon committee set up by the human resource development ministry in 2009, four were from Tamil Nadu, sources said.

Tamil Nadu, incidentally, has the highest number of universities in the country.

The committee was set up on the directions of the Supreme Court and the UGC is expected to serve notice on the 34 institutions that still do not fulfill the deemed university criteria.

The HRD ministry will present the panel's report to the Supreme Court tomorrow, which will take a final call about the fate of these institutes.

The Supreme Court had earlier this year directed the UGC to examine all the reports of the 41 deemed to be universities and advise the central government.

These universities had gone to the Supreme Court after they were put in the 'C' category in 2009 by the Tandon Committee.

After the Supreme Court's direction, UGC had set up a committee under vice chairman of UGC H Devaraj, which heard all the 41 deemed universities separately.

Officials said the commission meeting on Monday took into account the report of the panel and decided to issue show cause notice to the seven universities as to why they should not be denotified.

However, a few officials said the matter would be left to the Supreme Court to decide about the fate of these varsities.