After streamlining the admission process and ensuring minimum standards for various degree and postgraduate courses, the State Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission has started a review of higher courses being offered by private universities in the state.
It is learned that the regulatory commission has received complaint against private universities enrolling students for PhD in bulk in violation of the UGC regulations. So it’s carrying out detail exercise covering the entire process, right from the conduct of admission test to the qualification of teachers engaged as PhD guides.
Complaints featured that the most universities do not have qualified faculty and were not even offering postgraduate courses in disciplines in which students had been enrolled for PhD. Even some universities that are only three years old have enrolled up to 70 students for PhD.
The exercise is being carried out in respect of MTech, MPhil and PhD courses being offered by various universities to ascertain if admissions have been carried out in accordance with the UGC norms and that these had qualified faculty and other infrastructure.
To accelerate the inspection and to sort them out in time, the commission has engaged the services of experienced faculty from Himachal Pradesh University. The entire record pertaining to admissions, research guides and other infrastructure is being scrutinised.
Regulatory Commission has completed the inspection in Shoolini University, Arni University, Eternal University, Bahara University and Chitkara University. The commission will take further action on the basis of the inspection report. Though there is not any revelation about the finding, but the commission will take these aspects into account while taking action and making its recommendations.
In cases of violation of the UGC regulations pertaining to the qualification of guides and eligibility of students, the commission may hold the degrees invalid and impose penalties on the erring universities.
