New Delhi, Nov 23: The New Delhi-based Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) is all set to become a deemed university with the HRD Ministry issuing a Letter of Intent (LoI) in this regard.
The institute, one of the prestigious journalism schools in the country which functions under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, offers postgraduate diploma courses in journalism, advertising and public relations.
Deemed university status to enable IIMC to grant degrees
The deemed university status will enable the institute to grant degrees instead of diplomas.
“A LoI has been issued to the IIMC and certain anomalies have been pointed out. Once they are removed, the institute will be granted deemed university status,” HRD Higher Education Secretary R Subramanyam was quoted as saying by a news agency.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) had in August recommended the HRD Ministry to grant deemed university status to the IIMC.
In 2018, the UGC had formed a four-member committee headed by B K Kuthiala, the vice-chancellor of Makhanlal Chaturvedi University in Bhopal, to analyse the proposal by the IIMC to grant it deemed university status.
The panel was later disbanded and two panels — one headed by Sachidanand Joshi, member secretary, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and other headed by M S Parmar, vice-chancellor, Kushabhau Thakre University of Journalism — made the recommendation.
Based on the committee’s recommendation and inspection team’s feedback, the UGC has recommended that the ministry should issue an LoI to the journalism school under the ‘De Novo’ category.
‘De Novo’ refers to an institution which focuses on teaching and research in emerging areas of knowledge.
The IIMC has expanded from two campus in Delhi and Dhenkanal to six campuses across the country — Jammu, Amravati, Kottayam and Aizawl being the new ones — over the last five years.
Niti Aayog wanted IIMC to be merged with either JNU or Jamia
Interestingly, during a review of higher education institutes by the Niti Aayog in June, it was recommended that the IIMC be merged with either the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Centre for Media Studies or Jamia Millia Islamia’s AJK Mass Communication Research Centre.
The idea was, however, rejected by the institute as well as both the Information and Broadcasting and the HRD ministries.
