Deemed university status requests put on hold

New Delhi, June 8(ANI): HRD Minister Kapil Sibal announced on Monday that the government has decided that it will not accept any further applications of aspiring deemed universities and would conduct a thorough review of the functioning of such universities.

"The ministry will set up its own committee, which will visit the deemed universities. May be the last 50 universities which were given the status," Kapil Sibal said.

"The report will come in three months. Depending on the gravity of violations of guidelines, the ministry will take action, which could include withdrawal of 'deemed-to-be-university' status from the errant institutions," Sibal added.

Kapil Sibal said the key agenda of his ministry, apart from the review of the procedure for grant of 'Deemed-to-be-University' status, are expansion and access to quality education for all sections of society.

"We will rethink the structure in which all this must happen. At the moment, it is happening under Section 3 of the UGC Act. Therefore, it is under the control of the UGC and we will do a rethinking to what must be put in place to enable our systems to be transparent and accountable and to maintain the issues of excellence, equity and quality," Sibal said.

The decision comes in the wake of a raging controversy over huge capitation fees being demanded by professional colleges from students. (ANI)