Off-campus avenue to let students get degrees

New Delhi: With some key bills on higher education stuck in Parliament, the government is exploring the possibility of declaring some institutes as off-campuses of statutory institutions to enable students get their degrees.

The government is in the process of declaring School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Bhopal and SPA, Vijayawada as off campuses of SPA, Delhi, which is deemed to be a university. The measure will help students who have started passing out from the two SPA institutes get their degrees as failure to pass an enabling legislation governing these institutes had left the students stare at uncertain future, said officials in the HRD Ministry. Worst affected is IIIT D&M Kancheepuram as inability of the previous government to pass a necessary legislation had affected thousands of students, they said.

The government had to go for the ordinance route keeping the future of 7,000 students in mind.

As of now, some 700 students belonging to the three institutes are still affected due to the non-passage of legislations, they said. The officials said while reviewing the progress of Higher Education Department, HRD Minister Smriti Irani expressed concern over large number of students from SPA Bhopal, SPA Vijayawada and IIIT D&M Kancheepuram not being able to get their degrees. The bills in this regard, which are ready, could be passed during the ongoing session of Parliament, they said. The UPA government had blamed the BJP-led opposition for the non-passage of the bills due to repeated adjournment of Parliament.