Deemed-to-be-university tag for Mysuru’s AIISH

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has approved a proposal to grant deemed-to-be-university status to the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH), Mysuru under ‘de-novo’ category of institutions.

The institution will be granted deemed-to-be-university status if it gets approval from the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry too.

The higher education regulator recently approved the proposal at its meeting on the basis of the report of a committee of experts constituted by it to visit the AIISH and assess the proposal for granting deemed to-be-university status.

Under the UGC Act, 1956, the Central government grants the deemed-to-be-university status to those higher educational institutions under ‘de-novo’ category which are devoted to innovations in teaching and research in “unique and emerging areas of knowledge,” so determined by eminent peers of the academic community in the disciplines concerned.

The committee of experts visited the institute in May 2018 and submitted its report to the UGC later.

“Considered the report of the UGC expert committee and resolved to recommend to the HRD ministry for giving a letter of intent (LoI) to the AIISH, Manasagangothri, Mysuru, Karnataka under the de-novo category. The Institution may be asked to fulfill requirements mentioned in the Report of UGC expert committee,” the higher education regulator noted at its meeting.

In 2014, Union ministry for health and family welfare had proposed to establish five more institutes in the country modelled after the AIISH.

While addressing a gathering after dedicating various facilities at the AIISH in October 2014, Union Minister Harsh Vardhan, who was then holding the portfolio of the Union health ministry, had said that in the next five years, it was intended to establish one more institute in the southern part of the country, followed by setting up of the proposed institutes in the northeast, west and other parts.