UGC allows SASTRA deemed university to set up off-campus centre in Chennai

NEW DELHI: The Central government, on the recommendation of University Grants Commission (UGC) has allowed Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology and Research Academy (SHASTRA) deemed-to-be university located in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu to set up an off-campus centre in Chennai. The Ministry of Education issued a letter of intent (LoI) in 2019 allowing the university to start the centre subject to fulfillment of some conditions.

In order to run the off-campus centre, the deemed university will have to fulfill the conditions such as submission of fulfillment report of conditions of LoI and starting of new courses at the centre in accordance with provisions of extant regulations of UGC. The university can start a postgraduate programme under the law department - LLB in International Trade and Commercial Law or Corporate and Tax Law only after the approval of the concerned statutory council.

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“The said off-campus shall be reviewed by the Commission after a period of five years from the date of notification by the government. This permission is subject to the compliance of the UGC (lnstitutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2019 and other relevant norms, rules, regulations, or directions issued by the central government, UGC and other statutory councils, from time to time,” read an official statement from the ministry.

UGC conveyed to the ministry that the university has submitted undertakings that LoI conditions such as teacher-student ratio, faculty strength, number of students, number of PG or research programmes, built up area per student, academic building, library, lecture halls, labs, hostels, faculty residence, healthcare, area for play, common and recreational facilities at the proposed off-campus at Chennai will be available as per UGC regulations and the programmes will be offered only after approval.

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The ministry in its LoI had asked the university to fulfill conditions including teacher-student ratio not to be less than 1:20, faculty not to be less than 25, minimum 500 students to be enrolled, built up area not to be less than 30 sqm per student, and at least three PG departments at the centre. The university had submitted a compliance report of these conditions.

In May, 2019, the ministry received an application from Vaidhyasubramaniam, vice-chancellor of the university for issuance of LoI for establishment of the off-campus centre. The centre forwarded it to UGC in June for examination and advice as per the UGC regulations.

UGC constituted an expert committee consisting of Professor V S Chauhan, Professor Sushma Yadav, Professor R C Kuhad and Professor Inder Mohan Kapathy to examine the application and give its recommendations. The Committee examined the application and recommended that Lol may be issued to the university.