Second cluster varsity in state to be formed only in 2020-21

The management of the Hyderabad Sind National Collegiate (HSNC) Board has decided to defer its plans of implementing the cluster university status until the next

The management of the Hyderabad Sind National Collegiate (HSNC) Board has decided to defer its plans of implementing the cluster university status until the next academic year (2020-21) owing to the state’s delay in releasing a gazette notification.

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This cluster university, second in the state, will bring together top colleges like HR College and KC College in Churchgate as well as Bombay Teachers’ Training College in Colaba (all part of HSNC ). While all other permissions have come through, the cluster university status depends on a final gazette notification which the state has not released yet. Instead of implementing the new status in the mid-academic year, the management plans to implement the status from the next academic year.

“With the delay in releasing the gazette notification, it now looks impossible to implement the cluster status in the second half of the academic year. The official implementation of the status, however, will take place next year,” said Dinesh Panjwani, spokesperson for HSNC board.

While the state cabinet had approved the formation of the HSNC University (HSNCU) in August, the Project Approval Board (PAB) for Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyaan (RUSA) decided to disapprove the move. In a meeting held in Delhi in September, PAB had decided to cancel the conversion of HSNCU as well as three institutes under the Satara-based Rayat Shikshan Sanstha into cluster universities, citing “non-enactment of act” as one of the reasons. After the RUSA had approved the HSNC University, the state had defaulted on the three-month deadline to approve the university and release an official notification on the same.