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INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENNAI 000041 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI IN
SUBJECT: DERECOGNITION OF "DEEMED UNIVERSITIES" INADEQUATELY 
ADDRESSES ILLS IN HIGHER EDUCATION 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  India's Human Resources Development (HRD) 
Minister, Kapil Sibal, is embarking upon an effort to reform higher 
education in India.  One of his major endeavors is a crack-down on 
"deemed universities," which is an attempt to end various corrupt 
practices in Indian higher education.  The deemed university 
crackdown will punish poorly run "sham" institutions, but also 
restrains South India's robust private education sector, and 
strengthens the inadequately equipped state-run universities.  This 
issue is particularly relevant in South India, where Tamil Nadu had 
the lion's share of the "blacklisted universities" with 16, and 
Karnataka had the second most with six.  End Summary. 
 
Debate over "Deemed Universities" 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) The Human Resources Development Ministry in November 2009 
created a special task force, chaired by P.N. Tandon of the All 
India Institute of Medical Sciences, to investigate 126 "deemed 
universities" that had been approved under previous HRD ministries 
on the recommendation from the University Grants Committee (UGC). On 
January 18, 2010 the HRD filed an affidavit with the Supreme Court, 
on the recommendation of the Tandon task force, to eliminate the 
university status for 44 of these 126 universities, and place an 
additional 44 on a "watch list," giving them three years to improve 
or lose their status. 
 
¶3. (U) Kapil Sibal's predecessor, Arjun Singh, approved 59 
institutions for "deemed" status during his tenure as HRD Minister 
(2004-09), as many as in the previous 50 years.  The term "deemed 
universities" refers to private higher education institutions that 
were once colleges, which were affiliated with and therefore 
substantially controlled by public universities, but were "deemed" 
to have their own independent university status.  The "deemed" 
private universities were thus released from control by government 
bureaucracies and were free to pursue innovative curriculums, modern 
research, and control over enrollment and tuition fees.  While some 
of these "deemed" institutions did not deserve to be given 
university status, many in South India flourished post-1990s as 
job-oriented educational programs free from the state-run 
universities' bureaucratic red tape and archaic mandatory 
curriculums. 
 
¶4. (U) The Tandon task force based its recommendations for 
withdrawal of "deemed status" on a list of criteria that included: 
whether the university was a sham, or purely for commercial profit, 
it was run as a family fiefdom, it lacked academic rigor (no quality 
research), or it was beyond capacity (lack of infrastructure, too 
many students with too few faculty.)  Whereas some of these 
institutions undoubtedly deserved to have their status withdrawn, 
several institutions with very good reputations were also thrown 
into the mix.  For example, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) 
and SRM University both located in Tamil Nadu, have consistently 
received high rankings and have a well-established reputation as top 
universities, but were placed "on watch" by the HRD.  Furthermore, 
the Committee put some of these institutions on the "black list" 
because they were run by family members or politicians instead of 
qualified academics, an issue that could have easily been resolved 
with a little notice.  Many of our contacts noted that the problem 
with this reform is that while it is well intentioned, it was done 
in haste and many qualified institutions and forward-leaning 
programs will be cut because of this. 
 
¶5. (SBU) We visited one university on the "blacklist," Saveetha 
University in Tamil Nadu, where senior officials told us that they 
had not received any official response from the Tandon task force or 
the HRD ministry, and complained that no one from the task force had 
even visited the campus.  Saveetha officials told us that they were 
allowed only ten minutes in New Delhi to make their case to the task 
force, and heard only through the press that their university was on 
the "blacklist." Furthermore, they claim they have not been told the 
reasons for the poor performance review, and therefore are unable to 
fix any problems they may have.  From what we saw, the university 
appeared to have superior infrastructure to the average state-run 
university and had ongoing construction.  Classrooms appeared to 
have modern equipment.  Saveetha officials also noted that they had 
received glowing reviews from the UGC as recently as September 2009. 
 The "deemed university" debate has eased up slightly since the 
Supreme Court ordered a "hold" until March 8 to review the HRD's 
request, but tensions are expected to rise again after the Supreme 
Court makes its decision. 
 
¶6. (SBU) We met with K. Ponmudy, Minister for Higher Education in 
Tamil Nadu, who said that he would like to eventually do away with 
all "deemed universities" and have all the bodies of education under 
one single source, with one regulator, the state government.  In 
doing so, however, none of the issues brought up by the Tandon 
Committee would be addressed and there might be no real reform of 
higher education.  These institutions would be returned to 
government control, and politicians such as Ponmudy would have 
increased power, including patronage and influence over hiring and 
 
CHENNAI 00000041  002 OF 002 
 
 
firing of faculty. 
 
Corruption in higher education 
------------------------------ 
 
¶7. (SBU) We met with Professor M. Anandakrishnan, currently the 
Chairman of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and a member 
of the Tandon task force appointed to suggest reforms in higher 
education, particularly regarding the "deemed universities."  Dr. 
Anandakrishnan explained that India's education system is second 
only to politics as the nation's most corrupt system.  He told us of 
enormous "under the table" entrance fees (known as "capitation fees" 
in local parlance), including charges of between $100,000 and 
$200,000 USD just for a seat at a post-graduate medical college, 
paid up front and in cash.  (Comment: Our locally employed staff 
corroborate this story and have personal contacts who have paid 
large sums as "capitation fees" for seats in medical schools.  This 
fee is separate from the annual tuition.  End comment.)  Dr. 
Anandakrishnan also told us of an instance when an IAS officer 
served as a vice-chancellor despite lacking any qualifications to do 
so.  He also cited one example of a doctoral program which had 110 
faculty members (of which only 18 had PhDs) to support 1200 PhD 
students. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Dr. Anandakrishnan told us that some of these institutions 
were set up by Congress or allied party (such as the DMK) 
politicians, and he cited the Rajiv Gandhi Institute in 
Sriperumbudur and the Bharat University, both in Tamil Nadu, as 
examples of poorly-run institutions headed by politicians. 
According to Dr. Anandakrishnan, the task force took its findings to 
Minister Kapil Sibal, who reported them to PM Singh; PM Singh then 
asked Sibal to "clean it up." 
 
 
"Deemed university" reform needed, but done poorly 
--------- 
 
¶9. (SBU)  Comment:  The issue at stake with de-recognizing the 
"deemed universities" is that in throwing out some of these "bottom 
of the barrel" institutions, many very good institutions will also 
be placed at risk.  Not only will thousands students suffer because 
of an association with a "blacklisted" university, but future 
progress in higher education in India is at stake.  By forcing these 
private institutions to revert back to mandatory state-controlled 
curriculum, the forward-leaning programs that had been developed in 
South India as an alternative in order to offer students an 
opportunity to succeed in fast-growing sectors, such as information 
technology, will no longer be available.  Programs that were 
developed to get around the outdated state-run curriculum to offer 
more modern programs in medical and engineering schools will be cut. 
 Rather than dealing with the corruption and inadequacy endemic to 
the government-run universities, absorbing the "deemed universities" 
back into the public sector may only exacerbate the problem.  End 
comment. 
 
SIMKIN