THE Ministry of Human Resource Development filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on January 18, 2010, to withdraw the ‘Deemed to be university’ status offered to 44 such universities, across the country.

However, the Supreme Court (as predicted earlier by Careers360) has made it absolutely clear that there is no change in the status of these deemed universities. The legal process will continue and each affected deemed university will defend itself before the court, and this process will take quite sometime.

Careers360's view/ recommendation: The damage to the institutions is already done, and unless the case is fast trackeds, students will be left hanging and new admissions will be affected. The ideal solution would be to abolish the concept and offer them the status of a private university, and subject them to the same laws of the land. But until the policy changes, the situation is still one of indecision. However, existing students will be completely unaffected. 

Advisory: What exactly is a Deemed University?

The affidavit came about in the course of the hearings of a writ petition filed by Advocate Viplav Sharma in 2006 seeking the regulation of Deemed Universities. The withdrawal decision was based on a report submitted to the Ministry by a committee chaired by Professor Tandon. The panel comprised P N Tandon, formerly with AIIMS; Goverdhan Mehta of Indian Institute of Science; M Anandakrishnan of IIT Madras and Mrinal Miri, eminent social scientist. The committee was mandated to review the functioning of all deemed to be universities with respect to academic quality, infrastructural sufficiency and value offered to the students. 44 deemed to be universities according to the committee, did not meet the minimum criterion.

This was only an affidavit and not an order. In other words, the court has not yet approved the scheme proposed by the Government as of now. It is also likely that some of these institutions might successfully challenge the order when it arrives before a larger bench. Newspaper reports do claim that an elaborate scheme is in place to ensure that the interests of over two lakh students who study in these institutions will be taken care of.

Most of these institutions were successfully running as affiliated colleges before they were granted the said status. So reverting back to the previous status may not be very difficult for most of them.

If you are a student…
Our advice: If you are considering admission in some of these colleges, wait till the situation gets clearer. If you are already a student, in all probability your interests will not be compromised. Needless to say, this is another case of the regulatory mess that students of higher education quite often face in India. Hopefully at least this time their interests would be safeguarded.

Deemed Universities on the list*

•  Christ College, Bangalore
•  Vignan’s Foundation for Science, Technology and Research, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh
• Lingaya’s University, Faridabad
• St Peter’s Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai
• Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education, Kanyakumari
• Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida
• Shobhit Institute of Engineering and Technology, Meerut
• Sumandeep Vidyapeet, Vadodara, Gujarat
• Sri Devraj Urs Academy of Higher Education and Reserch, Kolar, Karnataka
• Yenepoya University, Mangalore
• BLDE University, Bijapur, Karnataka
• Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Satara, Maharashtra
• D Y Patil Medical College, Kolhapur, Maharashtra
• Meenakshi Academy of Higher Education and Research, Chennai
• Chettinad Academy of Research and Education, Kanchipuram
• HIHT University, Dehradun
• Santosh University, Ghaziabad
• Maharshi Markandeshwar University, Ambala, Haryana
•  Manav Rachna International University, Faridabad
• Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education, Tumkur, Karnataka
•  Jain University, Bangalore
• Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, Pune
• Siksha “O” Anusandha, Bhubaneswar
• Janardan Rai Nagar, Udaipur, Rajasthan
• Institute of Advanced Studies in Education of Gandhi Vidya Mandir, Sardarshahr, Rajasthan
• Mody Institute of Technology, Sikar, Rajasthan
• Dr MGR Educational and Research Institute, Chennai
• Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai
• Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Virdhunagar, Tamil Nadu
• Periryar Maniammai Institute of Science and Technology, Thanjavur
• Academy of Maritime Education and Training, Chennai
• Vel’s Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies, Chennai
• Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Coimbatore
• Vel Tech Rangaraja Dr Sagunthal R&D Institute of Science, Chennai
• Gurukul Kangri, Haridwar
• Grapich Era University, Dehradun
• Nehru Gram Bharati Vishwavidyalaya, Allahabad
• Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, Puducherry
• Vinayaka Mission’s Research Foundation, Salem, Tamil Nadu
• Bharath Institute of Higher Education And Research, Chennai
• Ponnaiya Ramajayam Institute of Science and Technology, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu
• Nava Nalanda Mahavira, Nalanda, Bihar
• Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu
• National Museum, Institute of the History of Art Conservation and Musicology, Janpath, New Delhi

* This is an unverified listing as per news reports. We await a response from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, with an approved list.