BANGALORE, India (APEN) – The federal government has decided to withdraw the deemed university status of a Catholic educational institution here.
The Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI)-run Christ University, is among the 44 deemed universities in the country, and one of the six in the southern Indian Karnataka state, which will lose its deemed status.
About 2,00,000 students study in the 44 derecognized universities, while the Christ University, founded in 1967, has about 7000 national and international students in the undergraduate and post graduate programs.
The Human Resources Development (HRD) ministry of the federal government in an affidavit to the apex court on 18 January said that the decision to derecognize 44 of the 126 deemed universities across the country was taken on the basis of the recommendations in November last year of a government committee.
The affidavit said that, “The review committee came across several aberrations in the functioning of some of the institutions deemed to be universities.”
“It found undesirable management architecture where families rather than professional academics controlled the functioning of institutions,” the affidavit stated.
The officials of the Karnataka state’s higher education department have reportedly said that the six universities in the state did not have proper infrastructure or facilities for research.
The Christ University management has old the media on 21 January that it is planning to move the country’s apex court against the decision of the federal HRD ministry.
According to the management, “we will file a petition in the Supreme Court against the government’s reported decision.”
The Christ University wanted the government to “issue a notice to us and hold a hearing” and during the mandatory hearing the management will present its case.
The deemed university is a status of autonomy granted to high-performing institutes and departments of various universities granted by the Department of Higher Education, HRD ministry on the advice of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
It gave the Christ University the deemed university status in 2008 for a period of five years.
The deemed university status enables not only full autonomy in setting course work and syllabus of those institutes, but also allows them to set their own guidelines and fees. Many deemed universities are also allowed to award degrees in their own name.
Flooded with enquiries, the Christ University posted a note of clarification on its website which reassured “all students, staff members and well wishers of Christ University that its Deemed University Status remains intact and there is no reason for the University to believe that its status would be withdrawn.”
According to the 19 January clarification from the registrar of the university, the first to
run by a Catholic Church in India, the Christ University was reviewed by the Expert Committee of MHRD as well as that of UGC and no adverse comment has been received by the University from either of them. MHRD review was based on a presentation made by the University at New Delhi in the month of August 2009. An eleven member team of experts appointed by UGC visited the University during 22nd to 24th of September 2009 and their recommendation as per their Report dated 13th November 2009 is quoted as hereunder.
"Based on the observations of the Committee and detailed verification of the strength and weakness of all the existing departments, the Committee unanimously recommends that the Deemed to be University status to Christ University, Bangalore may continue."
According to the website, “the administration at Christ University is strictly in accordance with the Rules of Christ University duly approved by its Statutory Authorities. The Board of Management, the apex authority of the University has nominated representatives of the UGC and the Govemment of India as its members and there is nothing that the University has acted on without its approval.”
“As per Section 19 of the UGC (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations 2009 no withdrawal of the Deemed University status can be done without seeking written explanation of the institution concerned after notifying the deficiency and reason for such withdrawal.
“Christ University strongly believes that there must be some error of judgment in the reported media communication. The University is awaiting the official communication from the MHRD to take appropriate actions.”
The university requested its students, staff members and well wishers to be aware of the situation and not to panic about it.
