The University Grants Commission (UGC) has recommended to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) that admissions to deemed universities should be based only on an entrance exam, and fees should be based on recommendations of fee fixation panels.

The UGC, under fire for giving deemed university status to a record number of institutes over the past five years, had set up a committee last year under Pondicherry University Vice-Chancellor Prof. J A K Tareen to study the admission process and fee structure in these institutions.

The UGC has accepted the changes recommended by the committee. The recommendations are learnt to have also found favour with the HRD Ministry’s review committee on deemed universities. This latter committee — of four members — was set up after Kapil Sibal took over as HRD Minister, to study the functioning of all 127 deemed universities in the country.

“The two major allegations against deemed universities concern admissions and high fees. The UGC committee has recommended that admissions should be based on all-India entrance exams, at least for courses like medicine and engineering. Alternatively, deemed universities can have their own entrance exams. The idea is to make the admission process transparent,” said a top official.

“It has also been recommended that fees should be fixed by either a national- or state-level fee fixation committee,” the official added.

The Ministry’s review committee — which has recently finished its work but whose details are not yet public — too is learnt to have recommended improved admission procedures. It has also recommended narrowing the difference in fees in government-aided institutes and deemed universities.

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