H Devaraj Committee reported most deemed universities not fit for being a university

H Devaraj Committee on 8 September 2014 reported that most of the deemed universities are not fit for being a university. It said that out of 41 C category deemed universities only 10 universities are found to be fit for being a university. Rest of the university does not fulfil the criteria to become the university.

Main findings of the Committee
• Many institutions were accorded deemed university status on certain conditions, against the Union Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956 which does not allow conditional notification.
• The UGC or Union Human Resource Development Ministry failed to check whether the institutions with conditional notification have fulfilled the specified criteria after a certain time period or not.
• Serious discrepancies were noted in upgradation of 8 B category institutions to A category institutions.
• Many of the institutions landed into A category list of high-performing deemed universities drawn by the Tandon Committee.
• If a college got the deemed university status, its sister institutions were automatically considered to be under its ambit –without separate assessment of their infrastructure etc.

Background
The H Devaraj Committee was formed at the behest of Supreme Court in January 2014 after 44 institutions, which were declared unfit by the Tandon Committee in 2009, went to the Supreme Court.
In 2009, the Tandon committee, while reviewing deemed universities, had put 44 of them under the 'C' category and declared them unfit to be a university.

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