IITs can grant only UGC recognised degrees: Govt

In what is turning out to be a confrontation between the Indian Institute of Technologies and the University Grant Commission on degrees issued by the premier technical institutions, the government has backed the latter saying the IITs can issue only those degrees recognised by the UGC.

In what is turning out to be a confrontation between the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) and the University Grant Commission (UGC) on degrees issued by the premier technical institutions, the government has backed the latter saying the IITs can issue only those degrees recognised by the UGC.

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In a letter written to IIT Kharagpur which had raised objection to the UGC’s direction to all universities including the IITs to roll back courses that are not recognised by it, the human resource development (HRD) ministry said it had stretched its power under the IIT Act 1961, an act of Parliament under which IITs are governed.

Suggesting a way out of the confrontation, the ministry asked both the IITs and UGC to hammer out an “appropriate solution” and list out the degrees that are not in conformity with the UGC regulations.

The UGC, an apex regulatory body for higher education in the country, had shot off a letter to all institutions of higher learning on July 12 asking them to conform to degrees recognised by it saying unspecified degrees could lead to a barrage of litigation.

UGC’s letter had come in the backdrop of the Delhi University four-year undergraduate programme controversy, after which it notified all the recognised degrees.

The UGC had recently forced Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore to change the name of its course under the same regulation.