UGC approves new norms for deemed universities

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has brought out a new set of regulatory norms for deemed universities in order to reduce subjectivity and government interference and focus more on quality. According to the UGC Regulations, 2016, which were approved by the Commission at a meeting last week, an institution will be eligible to become a deemed university if it has undergraduate and 5 post-graduate programmes with research in existence for 3 years.

Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Higher Education Secretary V S Oberoi said, the previous regulations had subjective terms which could be interpreted in different ways. He said, as per the new regulations, a deemed university should have a minimum 40 per cent open space of the



total built up area. Mr Oberoi, however, emphasised that the new regulations would be required to go through the scrutiny of HRD Ministry after which they would be notified. 

Additionally, to ensure quality, institutions vying for the ‘deemed university’ tag will have to either get the highest NAAC or NBA accreditation rating for three cycles consecutively or an ‘A’ grade at the time of application and a position among the top 20 institutions under the National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF). Deemed universities will be able to open off-campus centres only after five years of their existence. Several educational institutions have in the past sought changes in the existing deemed university regulations.