SASTRA University in Tamil Nadu has urged the University Grants Commission to take into consideration the report of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council and not the Tandon committee findings, while reviewing deemed university status of 41 institutions.
In a letter to UGC Chairman on Wednesday, Vice-Chancellor R. Sethuraman said that since the validity of the Tandon report was under challenge in the Supreme Court, it should not be relied upon during the review.
The court has granted the UGC time till July 31 to review afresh the status of the 41 institutions and submit a report.
Prof. Sethuraman pointed out that at the 500th meeting of the UGC held in March, it was unanimously agreed that the three reports — of the Tandon committee, an expert panel of the UGC and the one set up by the Centre — were at variance with one another in their approach and that considerable time had elapsed since the reports were submitted.
“Therefore, at this stage, it is not possible to ascertain the current status of these institutions, more so in respect of their available physical and academic infrastructure, as also in respect of their academic performance and research output. This would require that all 41 institutions deemed to be universities are visited afresh by expert committees and this has been accepted by the court.” Prof. Sethuraman said that at the 472nd meeting it had been decided to grant ‘12B status’ (to institutions which deserve central assistance and funding) relying on the ‘grades’ awarded by the NAAC.
However, this was not done and classification was done on the basis of the Tandon report.
He said: “We have time and again brought to the notice of the [Human Resource and Development] Ministry and the Commission the whimsical, arbitrary and discriminate manner in which institutions have been grouped by the Tandon Committee. Institutions placed in the ‘A’ category by the Tandon Committee have been awarded ‘B’ grade by the NAAC and vice versa. Hence, we request the UGC to rely on the grades awarded by the NAAC for the grant 12B status to the institutions deemed to be universities as originally contemplated, without any reference to the Tandon Committee, as the validity of the constitution of the committee is under challenge...”
