MHRD Sets New Norms, Allows More Freedom to Deemed Universities

University Grants Commission (UGC), responsible for determining, coordinating and maintaining the standards of education at the higher level, has proposed the new regulatory norms for deemed university to Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD). The move is aimed at reducing the objectivity, government interference and to focus more on the quality of education. The government has accepted the proposal but after some tweaks.

As per the Regulations 2022 that UGC finalised in a meeting last week, an institution will be eligible for the title of deemed university if it has undergraduate and postgraduate programmes with research being there for the last three years. The UGC regulations 2022 are more precise as the previous ones had subjective terms that could be interpreted in a different way, said VS Oberoi, the Higher Education Secretary. After this, the proposals were sent to MHRD.

As per the new regulations, the deemed university should possess a minimum of 40 percent open space of the total build up area. The other regulations include a build up area of 1000 square metres, academic building and library area of 2000 square metres, lecture theatres and laboratories of 15,000 square metres. In addition to this, a floor area per student should be 10 square metres, which remains the same for the off-centre campus as well.

Keeping in mind the demands of universities, the government has also allowed vice chancellor to be the promoter and the deemed university also need to revise its course curricula every three years. The government interference is also reduced as the government will have nominees only in universities that are controlled or get equal to or more than 50 percent funding from the government.

Aside from the regulations, there has been some important news. Now the fixed duration of M.Phil and Ph.D. courses will be 2-3 years and 3-6 years respectively. The term has been relaxed by two years for female and physically challenged candidates. The MHRD has also increased the teaching period by two hours for professors, associate professors and assistant professors, which is now 14, 16 and 18 hours/week respectively.