An open letter to the HRD minister

Updated on: Monday, July 20, 2009

At the outset, kindly accept SASTRA's best wishes and congratulations on assuming charge as the Union HRD Minister. We look forward to your guidance and leadership in building a world class educational environment in India.

We wholeheartedly welcome your initiative in reviewing all the Deemed Universities in the country. It is certainly a welcome measure to keep at check erring Deemed Universities. In this connection, questionnaires have been sent by MHRD and UGC, to all Deemed Universities and committees are being appointed to visit all Deemed Universities for review. SASTRA has already prepared its reply to the questionnaires and is fully ready to support the MHRD in its quality drive. We would like to submit the following for your kind consideration:

The products of the Indian Higher Education system are also being consumed globally in various forms - higher education students, faculty, employees, consultants, etc. The quality of such products is found satisfactory and as recent testimony, Mr. Lewis M. Kling, President and CEO, Flowserve Corporation in a press conference in Coimbatore on July 14, 2009, openly remarked that India is home for best engineering talent.

Sir, as a seasoned professional, you are rightly concerned about the global image of Indian Higher Education and on that count, the recent move to review all Deemed Universities may send a wrong signal to the potential consumers - both inside and outside India. There are erring Universities - both private and state-owned. As a comprehensive overhaul, we request that the review be made in 3 stages.

1. Many Deemed Universities have been given the status with many conditions attached. As the first stage, such Deemed Universities may be reviewed to check whether conditions imposed during the time of granting Deemed University have been satisfied.

2. All Deemed Universities will be submitting their replies to the questionnaire sent by UGC and MHRD. Based on the replies, the second stage can review Deemed Universities which have opened unapproved off-campus centres in flagrant violation of the guidelines issued by the UGC in this regard.

3. The third stage can review all Deemed Universities which are not accredited by the National Assessment & Accreditation Council. Later, if the MHRD / UGC finds it to be necessary, all Deemed Universities can be reviewed.

Sir, I am sure you will appreciate, as a senior practicing advocate of the Supreme Court, that there are bad Deemed Universities and these should not hijack the intentions with which Dr. S. Radhakrishnan introduced the concept of Deemed University. We are sure that such a 3-stage approach in remedying the Deemed University situation in our country will send positive signals.

Thank you again for your time and we take this opportunity in extending SASTRA's fullest co-operation in your quest to improve the quality of higher education in India.

An open letter to the HRD minister

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