Wait for UGC approval gets longer for Azim Premji University as 'further compliance' sought

BENGALURU: Azim Premji University (APU) may have received a pat on the back by University Grants Commission (UGC) for its "exceptionally qualified faculty" and "some scholars of outstanding merit", but the Bengaluru-based varsity has not received approval from the regulator of higher education, which has sought "further compliance" from it. This is in sharp contrast to several private universities that have received approval after a quick inspection by the UGC panel.
APU had sought UGC inspection in February 2013. However, an eight-member UGC panel headed by former IGNOU Vice-Chancellor HP Dikshit visited the university only in March this year.

In contrast, Bengaluru-based PES University sought inspection in March 2014 and the inspection committee arrived in October the same year and recommended approval straightaway. The OP Jindal Global University in Haryana was recommended approval after an inspection in March 2010, a year after it was set up. Similarly, the ITM University in Madhya Pradesh was inspected in February 2014, less than a year after establishment, and was recommended approval. This is evident from the record in UGC's website itself.

Although they are taken aback, APU officials said they will work on the "shortcomings" pointed out by the UGC committee. University registrar S Giridhar told ET that "the (UGC’s) observations will help us". Four batches of students had graduated from APU since its inception.

The expert committee found deficiencies in two areas. Inadequate infrastructure was one of the stated deficiencies as APU currently functions from leased premises in Electronics City. Interestingly, the panel first says that existing facilities are adequate for the next two years, but later in the report, observes there is an "acute" shortage.

Another deficiency pointed out by the committee was lack of appropriate statutes/regulations for its structure and functioning. Statutes developed by the APU, it says, are in brief and do not prescribe procedures, qualifications etc for the officers of the university.

As for the recruitment of teaching staff, the committee report says that it "did not find any well-defined process for recruitment specifying minimum qualifications/experience etc".

Prof Dikshit who headed the committee told ET: "A university needs permanency of infrastructure. In this case, the APU is in a rented building. The building plan for their new campus is yet to be approved, we were told. So we recommended approval subject to fulfilment of conditions, which includes making good for the existing infrastructural shortcomings."

On its part, the APU sent its responses to the UGC, last week.

Giridhar, who is also the university’s COO, said that a new 81-acre campus was under construction on the outskirts of Bengaluru. On the issue of statutes being inappropriate, he said that the UGC expected them to be elaborate and, therefore, the university was working on it. The present statutes, he said, should be read in conjunction with the Azim Premji University Act, 2010, passed by the Karnataka government.


That the Azim Premji University is yet to get an approval reflects the need for change in the regulatory framework, said sociologist GK Karanth. "It’s an out-of-the-box university that needs a comparative, out-of-the-box evaluation. Finding fault is a tendency especially when those representing the public sector are looking at the private sector."

An approval from the UGC is necessary to determine that the university fulfils norms and standards laid down as per the UGC (Establishment of and Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities) Regulations, 2003.

Manoj P, head of operations at APU, said the UGC will issue a formal approval letter only after the university shows compliance to the observations made by the expert committee. The lack of an approval, however, will not affect the university's degrees or its ability to award them under Section 22 of the UGC Act.

Founded by Wipro Chairman Azim Premji in 2010, the university has come to be widely recognised for its work in the humanities and social sciences streams. Between 2013 and 2015, its faculty published 21 books and 115 scholarly articles. In the same period, the university conducted 25 seminars and 205 public talks. Its researches received grants totalling Rs 2.40 crore in 2014-2015.

So far, the university has had 1,250 students with 190 faculty members and staff. In the 2015-16 academic year, the university has 660 postgraduate and 103 undergraduate students.