On November 16, following a supreme court directive of September 8, the Bangalore-based National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC, estb.1994), which appraises and accredits institutions of higher education in India, cleared 38 private universities which were among 44 universities across the country that had been recommended for derecognition by the Tandon Committee (2009) for “aberrations and unacceptable practices”. The committee had recommended that these institutions be stripped of their ‘deemed’ university status.

Not only did NAAC clear these deemed universities in its latest gradation list posted on its website, it awarded its top ‘A’ grade to 17 and ‘B’ to 20 of them. Monitors of the academic scene in Bangalore are amazed that the previously condemned Sumandeep Vidyapeeth,Vadodara was awarded a rating of 3.53 (out of a maximum 5), Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan University, Bhubaneswar 3.35, Uttarakhand’s Graphic Era University 3.23 and Maharashtra’s Krishna Institute of Medical Science and Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, both 3.20. On the other hand, Bangalore’s acclaimed Christ and Jain universities — also condemned by the Tandon committee — were awarded 2.85 and 2.63 ratings.

The Tandon committee, chaired by Prof. P.N. Tandon, emeritus professor of neuro-surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, and comprising Prof. Goverdhan Mehta, a former director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; Prof. Anandakrishnan, former vice chancellor of Anna Technical University, Chennai among others, was constituted by the Union HRD ministry in July 2009 to investigate reports of widespread malpractices and fraud in the country’s 127 deemed universities. The committee concluded that 38 of them merited university status while 44 institutions were deficient in some aspects. The committee came down hard on the remaining 44 deemed varsities (including Jain and Christ in Bangalore and Manav Rachna, Delhi), recommending that they be stripped of their deemed varsities status and revert to being affiliated colleges of their previous parent universities.

After hearing a writ petition filed by the aggrieved deemed universities on January 25, 2010 the Supreme Court issued a cease and desist order to the HRD ministry stating that “nothing will happen to students or the deemed universities in question without hearing them”, thus effectively staying action against the universities on the basis of the Tandon committee report. Almost simultaneously with the submission of Tandon committee’s report to the HRD ministry, the University Grants Commission — NAAC’s parent organisation — praised the condemned varsities’ academic, research and infrastructure facilities, directly contradicting the Tandon committee’s report.

Like most well-informed academics in the garden city, Dr. M.S. Thimmappa, former vice chancellor of Bangalore University, is dismayed by the cavalier attitude of academics in the matter of accrediting institutions of higher education. “In my opinion the Tandon committee was casual in blacklisting 44 deemed universities without adequate investigation and scrutiny. NAAC has been equally casual in not only give them a clean chit, but also upgrading them. This is because 90 percent of private universities are promoted by politicians, to whose pressure NAAC is susceptible. Therefore NAAC, UGC, AICTE and the scandals-prone Medical Council of India, among other higher education regulatory organisations, should be wound up and replaced by a National Higher Education Council recommended by the Yashpal Committee in 2009. Moreover, college and university ratings and rankings should be left to the media and independent third parties,” says Thimmappa.

But this advice is likely to find few takers within the political establishment and academia. Politicians, bureaucrats and over-paid and overrated academics have deep vested interests in the status quo. Instead they are likely to devise novel Indian solutions (see p.18)

Jeswant J.M. (Bangalore)