Deemed doom talk creates din

Tamil Nadu tops list of dubious universities
Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi and his extended family of politicians want to make Tamil Nadu a model state with “uniform” education for all. But they wouldn’t have reckoned with the fact that the state has earned the dubious distinction of accounting for 16 of the 44 deemed universities that are on the verge of losing their deemed status for not following University Grants Commission (UGC) norms.

Some of the colleges are directly backed by politicians while others depend on political clout. Only Isari K Ganesh, founder-chancellor of Vels Institute, which runs a number of professional institutions in and around Chennai, reacted strongly to the Centre’s recommendations of shutting down these deemed universities.

“We will implead ourselves in the Supreme Court case. We weren’t issued show-cause notices nor given sufficient time to rectify our lapses, if any. In fact, a UGC team recently visited our university and was quite satisfied with our facilities and functioning. The deemed status was given after inspection by a UGC team a year ago. We need time before being nailed,” Ganesh told DNA.

The Tamil Nadu government has reacted cautiously, stating that it would await the Supreme Court verdict and abide by its direction.

The students of Saveetha and Meenakshi Universities, close to Chennai, held rallies protesting against their respective deemed varsities. Security has been beefed up at all the 16 deemed universities in TN and the sole deemed university in neighbouring Puducherry that are threatened with closure.

Students at PRIST University in Thanjavur are hopeful of an amicable solution. Students at Saveetha University were despondent.

“When we approached the institution for admission, they showed us one building, saying it would be our college premises. Despite repeated pleas, we have been getting only promises,” said the agitated students, who boycotted classes, ransacked office rooms, and set fire to furniture.

In Orissa, the future is bleak for 5,000 students
It was a modest beginning for Professor Manojranjan Nayak when he set up an engineering college in 1996. With the support of the ruling and opposition political parties, he managed to expand his college, receiving investments from different anonymous politicians.

Under the ambit of Siksha O Anusandhan University, Nayak set up six institutes. Orissa has two deemed universities. KIIT is the second one. Sikhsha O Anusandhan prospered under political patronage and little accountability. But trouble started when Nayak tripled the number of students even as infrastructure and capacity remained the same. His university is now on the verge of closure.

VK Saraf, deputy chairman, Siksha O Anusandhan, said the university was worried over the HRD ministry’s decision. “Around 5,000 students of various faculties would be affected,” he said.
Many of the students entering this deemed university pay hefty donations.

Two K’taka varsities manipulated system
The process through which the two universities of Bangalore, Christ University (CU) and Jain University (JU), obtained the ‘deemed’ status is still doubtful. CU, which was earlier affiliated to the Bangalore University (BU), has not yet paid dues.

CU had applied for the deemed status in 2008 to the UGC and simultaneously sought a no-objection certificate (NoC) from BU. As there were dues to be paid, the then VC, HA Ranganath had not issued a NoC. CU then approached the state high court, but the ruling went in favour of BU.

CU officials finally managed to get the NoC through the then registrar of BU, Sanjay Veer Singh. As per documents available with DNA, Singh sent a letter to the UGC on May 13, 2008, stating that BU does not have any objection to issuing a NoC to CU.
AP Ranganath, syndicate member of the university, said: “Singh issued a NoC in just three days in the absence of the then VC, HA Ranganath.”

The JU issue came for discussion on June 7, 2008. The university had applied for a NoC on March 20, 2008. The request was rejected as the state government, through a letter, insisted on not recommending any institution for the conferment of deemed university status.

“Even after the matter was decided by the syndicate, the registrar managed to issue a NoC to Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College,” Ranganath added.

UGC rated Rajasthan universities well
In Rajasthan, the academic career of 12,000 students studying in three deemed universities are at stake. The Mody Institute of Technology in Sikar, the Institute of Advanced Studies (Gandhi Vidya Mandir) at Sardarshahar in Churu and the Janardhan Rai Nagar Rajasthan Vidyapeeth in Udaipur (founded in 1937) are on the list of deemed universities recommended for closure.

Vice-chancellors and the officials of these three deemed universities said they were clueless about the developments. “We have not received any official notice or a reason which would explain why our university has been blacklisted,” said vice-chancellor of Janardhan Rai Nagar Rajasthan Vidyapeeth.

“In fact, a UGC team visited our campus last year and rated us as competent enough to run our courses.” Amal Kumar, registrar of the Mody institute of Technology, had the same thing to say.

Fate of 1,500 Gujarat students at stake
Sumandeep Vidyapeeth, a deemed university at Pipalia, near Vadodara, is one of the deemed universities listed by the HRD ministry for closure. University authorities said they have not received any information to that effect either from the Centre or the UGC. Nearly 1,500 students are currently studying graduate and post-graduate courses in medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy, nursing, pharmacy and management at the Vidyapeeth.

“A UGC team had inspected our university and sent us a letter of approval, which we sent to the HRD ministry,” said registrar Navin Shah. Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said the varsity promoter runs an “education mafia”.

(With inputs from D Ram Raj in Chennai, Subhashish Mohanty in Bhubaneswar, Sidharth Bose in Jaipur, Paras Jha in Ahmedabad and Rashmi Belur in Bangalore)