What is Deemed University as per UGC?

Before defining a deemed University, you should learn about the University Grants Commission (UGC). UGC is a statutory body set up by the Union Government in the year 1956 and handled by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

This body synchronizes and oversees higher education in India. One of its most significant tasks, even so, is to provide recognition to universities. This indicates that higher education institutions are categorized as universities only if they are rooted under some Central or State Act and are acknowledged by the UGC.

The University Grant commission functions according to the conditions noted in the University Grants Commission Act, 1956. This Act claims to all the universities in India.

Section 3 of this Act states that the UGC can suggest the Government to announce any other higher education college (which is not a university), to be a Deemed University. And this gets us to the meaning of the phrase.

A Deemed University is simply an institution that delivers high standards in a distinct region of study and, because of this, is deemed to be a university by the Central Government upon the guidance of the UGC. This position helps such institutions to enjoy the same advantages and honors that are open to any other university in the nation.

Before knowing everything about deemed universities, let's first understand the types of universities that are there in India. In India, UGC has mainly categorized universities into five types which are:

• Central Universities
• Private Universities
• State Universities
• Deemed-to-be Universities
• Autonomous colleges

Let's discuss each type of university in brief:

Currently, there are 1018 in total universities across India till 2021. These universities are categorized into Central, Private, State, and Deemed-to-be universities. To know about the total number of universities in India take a glance at the table below.

Under section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, the list of deemed universities of major states and union regions in India is mentioned below:

• After Independence, there was an acute need to raise people’s key to proper higher education benefits and implant talents and knowledge in them to work and achieve a living.
• Our nation had been always controlled and conflict-wrought beneath the British, and growing our human resources was the only route to improve the country’s condition.
• Thus, the regime established numerous universities for higher studies, and over the period the accounts and struggles put into them supported them reach international standards. Yet, the demand was massive and ever-increasing, while the supply of universities by the government fell behind.
• Meanwhile, private universities had also started establishing their own academic institutions (specifically after privatization standards were accepted) and few of them also initiated reaching the set benchmarks of higher studies.
• To promote more such universities and to deliver them with government recognition and advantages, the condition for the status of Deemed to be University was created.
• If a university fulfilled specific measures set by the UGC and received the status of deemed university, it would mean that it acquired such standards of education as specified by the UGC.
• Thus, individuals could count on and trust such an institution if they were looking to register in it, even though it was not a government-accepted institution.
• The UGC policies which define everything linked to the deemed universities, from the process to acquire this status to the points of its governance body, are shown in the UGC (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2019.