Nod for off campus varsities made time-bound

The Centre will take a maximum one-month time to allow or reject the proposal of top-rated deemed-to-be-universities for opening off campuses.

For the category-I deemed-to-be universities, the government has made processing of the applications for starting off campuses time-bound with immediate effect, notifying the new procedures recently.

The procedure for processing of applications of Category II deemed to be universities for starting off campuses will remain same but they may have to wait for more than a month to see the fate of their applications if the University Grants Commission (UGC) wants to engage a committee of experts to assess their capacity and verify the information provided by them along with their applications.

In both of the cases, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry will be the final authority to decide the fate of the applications of the deemed-to-be-universities on the advice of the UGC, an official said.

“All deemed-to-be-universities will have to obtain a prior approval of the HRD ministry for opening off-campus centres. The role of the UGC will remain limited to giving advice to the ministry on such proposals,” the official added.

The move is aimed at leaving no scope for piling up of pending applications for long either at the level of the HRD ministry or at the level of the UGC.

As per rules, the Category-I deemed-to-be universities will get permission for opening off campuses without any inspection, if the HRD ministry and the UGC are satisfied with the information provided by them about their proposal and capacity in an affidavit.

Under the UGC regulations for grant of graded autonomy, a deemed-to-be-university, which has been accredited by a government agency with 3.51 and above score or has figured among the top 500 world universities list released by prominent international rating agencies, are deemed to be category-I institution and entitled for availing greater autonomy.

Category II deemed-to-be-universities are those accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) with a score of 3.26 and above. Upto 3.50. Rest of the deemed-to-be universities are deemed to come under Category-III of the institutions.

“Deemed-to-be-universities, which are neither in Category-l nor in Category-II, shall follow the general procedure mentioned in the existing UGC (institutions deemed-to-be-universities) Regulations, 2016, as amended from time to time,” the notification, issued by the higher education regulator, stipulate.