NCERT likely to get deemed university status by end of January: Reports

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) will soon be granted a deemed-to-be-university status by the University Grants Commission (UGC), the ANI reported, citing sources in the Ministry of Education.

The “groundwork” for the final move has been done, and the UGC will conduct a meeting to finalise its decision soon, sources told ANI.

"The preparation has been done. The UGC has to hold a meeting to make a decision on NCERT. We are hopeful that once the next meeting takes place, the update will come by the end of the month," the ANI reported.

After the status, the NCERT will be able to award its own students with UG, PG and PhD degrees.

A deemed-to-be-university status is granted to higher educational institutions for demonstrating excellence in a specific field of study. The status is approved on the advice of the UGC and approval of the government.

IISc first to get deemed university status

Currently, there are around 145 institutes with deemed university status, of which the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) was the maiden college to receive it, as per the official website of the UGC. Tamil Nadu has the highest number of deemed universities across the country, the website says.

The deemed university status enables an institution to use its full academic autonomy to design courses, develop curriculum, determine admission policies, criteria and also fix course fees.

“NCERT is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Education and plays a central role in improving the quality of school education through curriculum development, textbook publication, educational research and teacher training. Once accorded the status, NCERT will be able to initiate expanded in-house research programmes and function as a full-fledged research university,” the ANI said.