NCERT eyes upgrade to central university
The decision was taken during the 109th meeting of the NCERT’s executive committee – the council’s highest decision making body– held on September 12
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is looking to upgrade itself to a central university and has decided to start the consultation process in this regard with the Union education ministry, officials familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The decision was taken during the 109th meeting of the NCERT’s executive committee – the council’s highest decision making body– held on September 12.
The meeting was chaired by Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan and was attended by the minister of state (department of school education) Annapurna Devi, UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar and NCERT director Dinesh Prasad Saklani,among others.
HT had reported on September 13 that during the September 12 meeting, the executive committee had “in-principle” decided to approach the University Grants Commission (UGC) seeking deemed university status under ‘de novo’ category.
According to UGC rules, institutes that specialise in unique and “emerging areas of knowledge” are granted deemed university status under the ‘de novo’ category.
According to the minutes of the September 12 meeting, a copy of which was seen by HT, it was decided to send a detailed proposal to the education ministry in regard to the deemed university status application.
“At the same time, it was also decided that simultaneously, the process for conversion of NCERT into a central university may be initiated in consultation with the Department of Higher Education (Ministry of education),” the minutes read.
NCERT officials said the idea behind the move for becoming a deemed university and then a cental university was so that it could issue degree certificates.
“NCERT is currently offering graduate and post-graduate integrated programmes at its Regional Institute of Education (REI) that are affiliated with local universities, including Barkatullah University, Bhopal, University of Mysuru, M D S University, Ajmer, Utkal University, Bhubaneshwar and North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. The Council has to coordinate with these universities for introducing any courses and offering degrees,” said a senior official, requesting anonymity.
“‘Deemed-to-be-University’ and later central university status will allow NCERT to offer its own graduate, post-graduate and doctoral degrees and have autonomy in terms of introduction of programmes, course structure, conducting examinations and management, among others,” the official said.
According to the minutes, it was also discussed to change the nomenclature of all ministerial staff of the NCERT “in line with the nomenclature of these posts under the university system” after the grant of deemed university status.
“A proposal will be submitted to the ministry soon in this regard,” the official added.
