Sunday, August 31, 2014

UGC's War on FYUP - IV: A Great Tactical Move by the IITS


Ask the UGC to send its diktat to the IIT Council, which is chaired by the HRD Minister, and has as its members some of the most respected and admired people -- IIT Directors as well as Chairpersons of their Boards.

Meanwhile, stating that the President of India, who is also the Visitor of IITs, “will have to take a call” on the issue, the directors of some institutes have said that until now, there has been “no requirement of clearance from the UGC on any matter concerning the IITs”.

Reacting to the UGC’s clarification, IIT Kanpur director Prof Indranil Manna told The Indian Express, “We are empowered to run our courses through our senate and our statutes. This is clearly stated in the IIT Act. If there is to be a change in this, the IIT council will have to take it up… In my opinion, UGC guidelines only apply to institutes under the commission and the IITs are clearly outside their ambit.”

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Update: The Economic Times reports that the UGC Chairperson is also a member of the IIT Council, and the HRD Ministry has endorsed this move.

1 Comments:

  1. Dheeraj Sanghi said...

    I believe that this is initiated by MHRD and not by IITs. Initially, MHRD desired that IITs sit down with UGC and sort things out, which IITs rejected, and hence MHRD came up with the idea of discussing it in IIT Council.

    It is not clear what role IIT Council has in this matter. Can IIT Council decide, for example, that UGC Act is not applicable to IITs. Shouldn't such a judgment be pronounced by a court and not by an affected party.