In a move to prevent universities from doing a lop-shod job while granting affiliation to sub-standard engineering colleges in the country, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to penalise them for any lapses in standards of education in the affiliated institutions.
The UGC would withhold funding for universities and even delist them from the 12(B) status (which entails them to receive grants) if they grant affiliation to ill-equipped technical institutions. UGC was recently gra-
nted powers to regulate technical institutions after the apex court stripped the All Indian Council for Technical Education of its regulatory powers.
The new Affiliation of Colleges offering Technical Education by Universities Regulations, for the determination and maintenance of standards of teaching, examination and research in universities, drafted by the UGC mandates universities not to offer any relaxations in norms while affiliating technical institutions. Every affiliating university is required to submit a compliance report concerning the provisions of these regulations, in respect of all affiliated technical colleges to the UGC annually and also upload it on the university’s website.
“New technical colleges shall be granted affiliation subject to the condition that they furnish an undertaking to apply for assessment to the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) within six months from the date of issue of Letter of Intent. All technical colleges which are more than six-years old shall apply for accreditation to NAAC or NBA within six months of issue of these regulations,” the UGC has said in its regulations.
However, E Balagurusamy, former VC of Anna University, was skeptical. “Practically, the UGC will not be able to implement these regulations effectively, since it has failed to implant its own earlier regulations regarding the appointment of VCs and teaching faculty members,” he said.
“The commission should inform universities to follow its norms and warn them that if they fail to follow norms then they will be derecognised,” he added.