The University Grants Commission (UGC) has published the draft guidelines on recognition of colleges. The higher education regulatory authority has sought comments from the public on the new guidelines named the “UGC (Recognition of Colleges under Clause (f) of Section 2 of the UGC Act) Regulations, 2023”.
The proposed guidelines will be applicable to colleges as defined under the UGC Act. The draft guidelines sets conditions for UGC recognition of a college and says that it should be affiliated to a university in accordance with the provisions of UGC (Affiliation of Colleges by Universities) Regulations. The college should comply with all the provisions of the UGC Act and Rules and should offer programmes of study leading to the award of degrees or diplomas of not less than one academic year and for which the minimum qualification for admission is a Bachelor’s degree.
For recognition, a college should furnish documents related to year of establishment, affiliation certificate issued by the university and approval of the statutory/regulatory body with an undertaking that the college complies with all the provisions of the UGC Act. An official communication about the All India Higher Education Survey code issued by the Ministry of Education should also be provided to the UGC.
“All existing Colleges shall have to obtain UGC recognition under Section 2(f) within three years from the date of notification of these Regulations. The Colleges established/affiliated after the notification of these regulations shall have to obtain UGC recognition under Section 2(f) within three years of their establishment/affiliation,” the draft said.
Document verification
The responsibility of verification of the documents is with the universities. “If at any time, the information provided by the applicant college is found to be incorrect, the UGC may remove the name of the College from the list of recognised institutions under Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956,” the draft warns.
The UGC may also decide on physical or virtual verification of a College or constitute teams for such verification at any stage of application. “Failing to rectify the deficiencies pointed out after such verification, the Commission may take necessary action for withdrawal of the recognition granted to the College under Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956,” it added.
