Higher Education
Colleges in South India
Educational News Today
Tuesday, Jan 19, 2010
Chennai: Some of the institutions recommended for non-continuation as deemed universities scored zero on the scoring system adopted by the Tandon committee to judge their quality.
A member of the committee told The Hindu that the nine criteria used by the committee, including governance system, research output and faculty, were based on guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Memoranda of Association (MoA) signed by the institutions with the UGC.
The member said that some institutions - also in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry which had a significant share of institutions on the list - had been "atrociously scandalous" in admitting over 1,500 Ph.D. students with a faculty strength of less than 200.
One institution had started 500 "off-campus study centres" at different locations and many had started distance education courses. There were also many that had started "money-spinning" courses including B.Com and B.Sc. courses and had doubled their number of courses offered within a year of getting the status.
The member said that there was some confusion being created by pointing at positive reports given by a field team sent by the UGC to verify infrastructure guidelines. "We are not saying they do not have enough buildings. We are saying that these institutions have not built a case to show that they are not just another college and this means they have not changed their governance system and research content in line with the idea of the university," the member said.
Meanwhile, the institutions from the State whose deemed university status has been recommended for withdrawal are planning to implead themselves in the case before the Supreme Court at the next hearing, according to Ishari K. Ganesh, chancellor, Vel's University.
He said that the field team's report should be taken into account and that newer universities should be given time to prove themselves.
"Some deemed varsities atrociously scandalous"
Chennai: Some of the institutions recommended for non-continuation as deemed universities scored zero on the scoring system adopted by the Tandon committee to judge their quality.
A member of the committee told The Hindu that the nine criteria used by the committee, including governance system, research output and faculty, were based on guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Memoranda of Association (MoA) signed by the institutions with the UGC.
One institution had started 500 "off-campus study centres" at different locations and many had started distance education courses. There were also many that had started "money-spinning" courses including B.Com and B.Sc. courses and had doubled their number of courses offered within a year of getting the status.
The member said that there was some confusion being created by pointing at positive reports given by a field team sent by the UGC to verify infrastructure guidelines. "We are not saying they do not have enough buildings. We are saying that these institutions have not built a case to show that they are not just another college and this means they have not changed their governance system and research content in line with the idea of the university," the member said.
Meanwhile, the institutions from the State whose deemed university status has been recommended for withdrawal are planning to implead themselves in the case before the Supreme Court at the next hearing, according to Ishari K. Ganesh, chancellor, Vel's University.
He said that the field team's report should be taken into account and that newer universities should be given time to prove themselves.
Courtesy: The Hindu
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