HRD ministry and minister Kapil Sibal do not want to talk about the report on deemed universities by its own review committee, because the panel has said that over 40 universities, most of them private, do not deserve deemed status.
The committee found only 38 deemed universities to have excellent infrastructure and 44 could retain deemed status after improving certain aspects of infrastructure, research and administration. The rest, a little over 40, were beyond redemption and could not retain deemed university status. Of the deemed universities that do not deserve deemed status, three were in Haryana, two each in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh but thehe bulk of deemed universities not found fit are in South India, especially Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
The reason why ministry does not want to talk about the report, sources said, is due to the fact that it will find it impossible to take away the deemed status of any university (Doesn't it strange that these Universities that affect the life of thousands of students cannot be held accountable by anyone?) .
The reason is not far to seek. Powerful politicians who run many of the deemed universities have been working to thwart any disciplinary action and have ensured that laws were enacted to protect their interests in perpetuity.
Even legally, the ministry cannot take action as under the UGC Act, deemed status is given at the recommendation of UGC. And UGC, the regulatory authority is corrupt to the boot. Deemed University status were given by UGC flouting all basic norms. A similar process has to be followed in case of revocation of deemed status. The funniest part is that while Ministries committee has found many deemed Universities to be unfit, UGC's review committee of deemed universities has not found fault with any of them.
The biggest inadequacy of deemed universities, according to the review report, is the manner in which they have started hundreds of study centres all over India. Fee and administrative structure of private deemed universities are totally unregulated and are run in a whimsical fashion, the report said.
A substantial section of the report deals with how higher education was being run as a business and academic and administrative posts were held by family members and relatives of promoters. Research output of most private deemed universities was sub-standard.
Now is there any wonder why all these led to this Headline?
