UNIVERSITIES OFFERING UNRECOGNIZED DEGREES

The University Grants Commission (UGC) said some universities are awarding unspecified degrees that is resulting in litigation and numerous issues for the students who are awarded such degrees. The UGC, the regulator of higher education, has also requested universities to adjust to its regulations “to award only the degrees specified by the UGC.” The UGC circular comes after the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), the highest consumer commission, recently ordered a Karnataka college to refund Rs 1.12 lakh to its 11 students who received a degree apart from the one they’d registered. The consumer body had asked St Aloysius Institute of computer science, Mangalore to reimburse the amount among four weeks along with the value of litigation for the 11 students who attained a M.Sc. degree in software technology rather than MS in computer science. The Commission has been, time and once more, requesting the universities to award degrees only within the framework of Section 22 of the UGC Act. The consolidated list of UGC approved nomenclature of degree(s) for the aim of Section 22(3) of the University Grant Commission Act, 1956 is available on the UGC web site,” the circular aforesaid.

The universities are once again, requested to follow the provision of Section 22 of the UGC Act, 1956 and award only such degrees as having been specified by the UGC,” it said. If a university desires to award a degree apart from the one given by the UGC, the Commission has asked educational institutions to approach the UGC for its approval six months before beginning the degree programme with full justification on the course to be started.