With the Central Government deciding on granting complete autonomy to select institutes of higher education under its new proposal Institute of Eminence Deemed to be University, four private universities and a state university have come forward to claim the status. These include Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU), Ahmedabad University (AU), Anant National University and Nirma University apart from a state university Anand Agricultural University (AAU).
The status will take these varsities out of University Grants Commission (UGC)’s ambit and they will have complete autonomy to not only run new course on their own but also decide on their fee structure, intake of students and hire foreign faculty members and enroll foreign students. Currently, if a university wants to do any of these things, they have to seek UGC’s nod and seek state-level Fee Regulatory Committee’s permission to decide the fee cap.