No institution has lost deemed status, says Sibal - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday denied reports that said around 44 institutions have lost deemed status. "We are restructuring higher universities. Deemed University concept will be replaced and a new law will be enacted to curb malpractices, it will be taken up by Group of Ministers (GoM)," said Sibal. No institution has been derecognised as yet. A taskforce has been set up and it will take up the matter on January 24," added Sibal. Trying to bring down the concern of the students, Sibal said, "We will take care of all students who are in those 44 Deemed Universities. The government's intention is to make sure not a single child will be affected." Sibal assured and said, "Every single child in these universities will get a degree, it may be from affiliated universities." The Centre had told the Supreme Court on Monday about it's decision to withdraw the deemed status to 44 universities in the country, alleging that they were being run as family fiefdoms rather than on academic considerations. The affidavit that was filed by the HRD Ministry said the government has accepted the recommendations made by PN Tandon committee and the special task force to suggest measures to tackle the problem. 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 said. Centre also revealed most of these 44 deemed universities were offering post-graduate and undergraduate courses that are "fragmented with concocted nomenclatures" and seats "disproportionately" increased beyond the actual intake capacity.