The three-member committee, constituted by the human resource development (HRD) ministry to do a comparative assessment of the deemed universities, has upgraded the grades of three deemed universities in Tamil Nadu from ‘B’ in 2009 to ‘A’ in 2012. The ministry released the comparative assessment report on Friday.
Prof P.N. Tandon, professor emeritus, department of neurosurgery, AIIMS, headed the committee, with Prof Goverdhan Mehta, national research professor and former chairman, NAAC, and Prof Mrinal Miri, chancellor of the Rajiv Gandhi University in Arunachal Pradesh, as members.
This year, the committee assessed the grading awarded by the five-member committee which reviewed the functioning of deemed universities in 2009. As per the latest report, VIT University, Vellore, which scored 25 in 2009, has scored 31 this year, taking the university from ‘B’ to ‘A’ grade.
Similarly, city-based SRM University had scored 21 in the previous review and has been awarded ‘A’ grade (31 marks) and the score of Sathyabhama University in the city went up from 24 to 31, placing it in ‘A’ grade.
Commenting about the 2012 review, Prof M. Ponnavaikko, vice-chancellor of SRM University, pointed out that in 2009, the committee did not provide them adequate time to present their views, but, this year, they were given 30 minutes to do so.
This time, the committee was fair enough to give us a chance to explain at length about the achievements of our university. The committee understood all aspects of our functioning and accepted that they had given less marks last time, he said.