Education Ministry Declares NCERT as Deemed University After UGC's Recommendation

In January this year, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had approved the expert committee’s recommendations which advocated granting deemed university status to the NCERT.

The Wire Staff

In January this year, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had approved the expert committee’s recommendations which advocated granting deemed university status to the NCERT.

education ministry declares ncert as deemed university after ugc s recommendation

Representational image of a classroom. Photo: Flickr CC BY 2.0 ATTRIBUTION 2.0 GENERIC.

New Delhi: In a notification issued by the Union Education Ministry on March 30, the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), has been declared as an institution deemed to be a university, reported The Hindu. As a result, the NCERT will now be able to offer courses/programmes and confer degrees.

According to the notification, in January this year, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had approved the expert committee’s recommendations which advocated granting deemed university status to the NCERT.

The latest notification by the Education Ministry has conferred deemed university status to NCERT along with its six regional institutes, provided that a list of conditions is met, reported The Hindu.

The conditions prevent the NCERT from indulging in any activities that are “commercial” and “profit-making” in nature. They also mandate that all academic courses or programmes must conform to the norms and standards prescribed by the UGC and the concerned statutory bodies or councils.

The notification allows the NCERT to start new programmes, off-campus or on offshore campuses, “only in accordance with the norms and guidelines issued by the UGC, from time to time, on the subject.”

The Ministry has also stated that the NCERT “shall take appropriate steps” to begin research programmes, doctoral programmes, and “innovative academic programmes”.

It also said that NCERT should not confine itself to what are currently the new emerging areas and instead try to expand into other domains which are in accordance with UGC guidelines and regulations and the National Education Policy of 2020.

Now that it has been declared as a deemed university, the government has also mandated the NCERT to start participating in annual rankings of institutes issued by the National Institutional Ranking Framework and has asked it to “compulsorily” create Academic Bank of Credits (ABC), identities of its students. The NCERT has also been asked to upload their credit scores in digital lockers that can be reflected in the ABC portal.

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