UGC 'Deemed-to-be' Status Not Applicable for Institutes Younger than 20 Years

In a bid to improve the education quality in higher learning institutes, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has come up with new rules for universities to use the Deemed-to-be tag. In its recent circular, UGC specified eligibility criteria for granting deemed-to-be status to higher learning institutes.

Institutes aspiring for 'deemed-to-be' status must be in existence for more than 20 years. In addition, the institute must require accreditation by NAAC or by NBA (for technical institutes). Along with being accreditated by NAAC, the institutions must also ensure that they receive a minimum CGPA of 3.26 by NAAC for three consecutive cycles. At the same time, two-thirds of the eligible technical programmes of these institutes must be accreditated by NBA (National Board of Accreditation).

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Higher learning institutes must feature in at least top 50 ranks in any category in the top 100 in the NIRF (National Institute Ranking Framework) rankings. The teacher-student ratio that should be followed by the Institutes should not be less than 1:20. To accompany this rule, the university must also have a faculty strength of 100 teachers and a minimum of 2,000 students scattered in the various multi-disciplinary courses.

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On the other hand, higher learning institutes must submit a detailed project report explaining the plan of action for the next 15 years as well as a rolling plan of five years. These changes have made to the existing rules that the UGC had for the deemed-to-be universities. To ensure that the guidelines are followed, the UGC will now visit the institutions annually and keep a check on how the students of the particular institution perform academically for that year.