NCR’s 10,000 students worried

Panic and anxiety. These two emotions struck hundreds of students, hard and fast, on Tuesday morning as they woke up to the news of their universities being one among the 44 likely to lose their ‘deemed’ status.

Panic and anxiety. These two emotions struck hundreds of students, hard and fast, on Tuesday morning as they woke up to the news of their universities being one among the 44 likely to lose their ‘deemed’ status.

HT Image

The fate of five educational institutions in the National Capital Region — Jaypee Institute of Information Technology (Noida), Santosh University (Ghaziabad), Manav Rachna International University (Faridabad), Lingaya’s University (Faridabad) and National Museum Institute of History of Art, Conservation and Museology (NMIHACM) — now hangs in balance.

But the students were in no mood for ambiguity as many sought clarification from their respective authorities first thing in the morning.

“The standard is low compared to other deemed universities. Besides, the threat of de-recognition will continue to loom over us,” complained a student of Manav Rachna International University.

A committee constituted by the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has recommended the revocation of the deemed status of 44 universities across the country.

The ministry had found these institutions lacking in past performance and holding no promise for the future.

On Monday, the ministry informed the Supreme Court that it had accepted the committee’s recommendations.

“The administration has asked us not to worry. But the news is too unsettling to be ignored,” said an MA student of NMIHACM (Janpath), on condition of anonymity.

“Our only hope is that we are government run and not among institutions which mushroomed over the last five years.”

Apart from dousing fear among students, the universities were busy chalking out their future course of action.

“It’s just an affidavit filed by the ministry. As on date we are a deemed university. We will plead our case to retain this status,” said Vijay Kumar, registrar at Jaypee Institute of Information Technology (Noida).

The institute has close to 3,000 students enrolled across different courses.

“We are fully prepared and won’t let our students get affected by this (de-recognition). If need be, we may also revert to affiliation with a state university like we have for our other courses,” said Vijay Kumar Arora, Vice-Chancellor, Santosh University.

While NC Wadhwa, vice-chancellor of Manav Rachna International University could not be reached despite repeated attempts, Vijay Madan, vice-Chancellor of NMIHACM, remained tight-lipped.