UGC issues revised guidelines for ‘deemed to be universities’

According to the revised regulations, multi-disciplinary institutions with minimum five departments (either
UG/ PG/ integrated/ research or a combination of these) or a cluster of institutions offering a minimum of five departments located in the same city/town will be eligible to apply for Deemed University status.

Additionally, the eligibility criteria will be NAAC ‘A’ grade with at least a 3.01 CGPA for three consecutive cycles or NBA accreditation for two-third of eligible programmes for three consecutive cycles or in top 50 of any specific category of NIRF for the last three years continuously or in top 100 of overall NIRF ranking for last three years continuously.

Now, the ‘De Novo’ category has been replaced with ‘distinct institution’ category, in which any of the institutes that are eligible as ‘distinct’) will not have to meet the NAAC criteria.

According to the new guidelines, now UGC will be providing approval for off-campus centre(s), and not Ministry of Education (MoE).

Deemed to be universities will be now eligible to establish their own off-shore campus centre(s), provided they meet the UGC regulations. However, it as been clarified that admissions will be based on merit in the entrance exam conducted by the government and the fees will be fixed transparently keeping in view non-profiteering/ non-commercial aspects.

Now, a system of graded penalty has been introduced for any violations. These include a warning through public notice, barring from any expansion, closure of programmes/ departments/ off-campus(es). In case of repeated violations, the deemed university status will be withdrawn.