No accreditation to unapproved off campuses

UGC decision may spell trouble for deemed varsities

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided not to allow granting of accreditation to unapproved off campuses of deemed-to-be-universities. At its meeting recently, the higher education regulator resolved that the National Assessment and Accreditation Council should only conduct quality assessment of the main campuses of such universities.

“The NAAC may be asked to de-link the accreditation of the main campus from that of their off-campuses and carry out the accreditation process of the main campuses,” the commission resolved.

The higher education regulator’s decision may come as fresh trouble to the BITS Pilani and some other deemed universities whose off campuses were declared “unapproved” by the UGC last year. The commission asked as many as nine deemed-to-be universities including BITS Pilani to shut down their off campuses, maintaining that they were opened without its approval.

The BITS Pilani has challenged the commission’s directive for shutting down their campuses in Supreme Court. Even as the apex court, earlier this year, held that the UGC should not take “coercive action” against the varsity, the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry told the Rajasthan government in September that it cannot validate the degrees granted by the BITs Pilani to the students of its off campuses located in Goa and Hyderabad as they were declared as unapproved by the UGC. The ministry’s clarification on the issue came in response to a query as to whether the state government could validate the degrees of BITS Pilani’s students who completed their programmes from the varsity’s off campuses in Goa and Hyderabad.

Students going abroad for higher education or studies are required to get their degrees validated from the respective state governments where the main campuses of their institutes are located.

“The ministry’s clarification to the Rajasthan government will be valid in case of other deemed-to-be universities which have been running their off campuses without any approval from the commission. When a university is running its off campus without approval of the UGC, how could it be considered for granting accreditation? Rules have to be followed,” an HRD ministry official said.