10 Top Indian institutes to soon down their shutters on the UGC’s orders

University Grants Commission, which is responsible for the regulation and maintenance of higher education in the country, has directed ten Indian institutions to immediately close their off-campus centres. The commission has said that these centres are "unauthorised" and have been set up against policies. These institutes include some highly reputed names like Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies University, Homi Bhabha National Institute, and BITS Pilani. The other names include Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Indian School of Mines Dhanbad, Banasthali University (Rajasthan), Ponnaiyah Ramajayam Institute of Science and Technology (PRIST), Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in Uttar Pradesh and The Lakshmibai National University of Physical Education (LNIPE) in Gwalior, which is sponsored by the youth affairs ministry. In a 2009 report of the HRD ministry, all these universities come under nation’s top rated institutes, except PRIST.

Sunita Siwach, Deputy Secretary of UGC, sent out notices to these ten institutions last week. The notices said that these centres have been established in violation of clause 6 of the UGC guidelines and Article 12(5) of the Deemed University regulations of 2010. These institutions have been given a month to submit a report on the action that they take regarding these centres.

However, the reactions from these institutes have not been too positive. Prof RB Grover, who serves as the vice-chancellor of Homi Bhabha National Institute, was surprised at this sudden move by the commission. "We have not yet received the communication but we are quite taken aback at this. This has to be some misunderstanding and we would like a dialogue with them on the matter," he told ET. "It is quite surprising as UGC as per its own gazette notification has approved HBNI as a deemed university with all its ten constituents. If there are some recent changes, then they must give us sufficient time to meet new requirements. Asking us to close these down will be very perturbing," he continued.

The notice also said that these centres were established without an approval by the ministry of human resource and development, and if these are not closed, "necessary action" would be initiated.

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