New Delhi, April 3 The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has been formally declared a deemed-to-be university, empowering it to award its own degrees, officials said.
"The Ministry of Education, on the advice of the University Grants Commission (UGC), NCERT along with its six constituent units have been declared as deemed to be a University under a distinct category," an official notification said.
These constituent units include regional institutes of education in Ajmer, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Mysuru, and Shillong, along with the Pandit Sunderlal Sharma Central Institute of Vocational Education in Bhopal.
As the apex organization for school education, the NCERT undertakes various activities and programmes, including educational research and innovation, curriculum development, and the development of textual and teaching-learning materials.
Three years ago, the Centre had approved granting the deemed-to-be-university status to NCERT in the 'De Novo' category. A 'De Novo' deemed university is an institution that can apply to the UGC for setting up a new institution as a deemed-to-be-university, which will undertake study and research in unique and emerging areas of knowledge that are not offered by any existing institution.
The notification has listed certain conditions for granting this status.
These conditions prevent the NCERT from engaging in any activities that are "commercial" and "profit-making" in nature, and mandate that all academic courses or programmes must conform to the norms and standards prescribed by the UGC and the relevant statutory bodies or councils.
The notification also mandated the NCERT to start new programmes, either on-campus or offshore, "only in accordance with the norms and guidelines issued by the UGC from time to time, on the subject".
Currently, the graduate and postgraduate programmes offered by the NCERT's Regional Institute of Education (REI) are affiliated with local universities like Barkatullah University, Bhopal, M D S University, Ajmer, University of Mysuru, Utkal University, Bhubaneshwar, and the North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong.
Further, the Ministry has said that the NCERT shall take appropriate steps to begin research programmes, doctoral programmes, and innovative academic programmes.
The government has also mandated the NCERT to participate in the annual rankings of institutes issued by the National Institutional Ranking Framework and has asked it to "compulsorily" create an Academic Bank of Credits (ABC), identify its students, and upload their credit scores in digital lockers that can be reflected in the ABC portal.