Considered universities in India are institutions that meet specific standards of research and scholarship, and can define their own curriculum and prices. The number of colleges with this status has declined, with fewer than 50 schools currently maintaining the designation. The government is considering other methods for school approval, including accreditation.
A considered university or “deemed university” is a status given in India by the Department of Higher Education to certain universities that meet specific standards of research and excellent scholarship. When a college obtains this status, it can define its own curriculum, prices and types of study without reference to the department or any other university with which it may share its affiliation. It wasn’t until the 1950s that the considered university emerged, and the initial number of colleges that received this approval slowly grew. This changed towards the end of the 20th century, with several universities receiving this recognition, followed by a decline in considered university status by about a third in 2010. It is not clear that universities will continue to maintain approval from the Department of Higher Education. in the future, and other ways of classifying faculties were proposed.
The University Grants Commission wrote the laws that initially dictated when institutions could be called a deemed university in 1956. They are not very specific, and more precise definitions of this form of university have since emerged. Some qualifications supposedly met by a university that believes itself to be a university is that it has been in existence for at least 10 years, has a commitment to research and innovation, and is financially sound.
In the past, when a college meets these requirements, it can apply to become a considered university. If that request was successful, the college operated and awarded degrees in its own name rather than that of an affiliated college, managed its finances, ran its own administration, made its own laws, and determined what educational paths it would follow. Universities considered more and more offered programs like distance learning and some of them were considered very good colleges.
Increasingly, the Department of Higher Education heard people’s concerns or complaints about abuses or poor educational standards at some of these schools because they did not follow rigorous academic standards. This led to an interest towards the end of the first decade of the 2000s to fully inspect all considered university schools and determine whether they would continue to receive the government’s seal of approval. Many of them lost their status and many others were warned. Currently, fewer than 50 schools maintain this designation.
These investigations were undertaken at the same time that Indian interest was growing in different methods of ranking schools to help determine which are reputable. The government continues to consider other methods for school approval, including things like using accreditation to identify colleges that meet certain standards. Some argue that the considered university is still a good idea, but simply needs redefining or more government oversight for these schools to commit to the expected level of excellence. For people considering a degree from a considered university, those that hold that designation are usually professionally recognized.
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