Page 194 - Compendium of UGC Regulations 1957-2023

Regulations on Establishment, Maintenance and Recognition of Institutions:

(6) The Commission shall forward its advice to the Government within sixty days from the
date of receiving the report of the Expert Committee; and thereafter, the Government
shall, having taken into consideration the advice of the Commission, within a further
period of thirty days, either issue approval or Letter of Intent (LoI) valid for a period of
three years or reject the proposal stating reasons thereto:
Provided that under exceptional circumstances, such as due to natural calamities or
pandemics, the validity of Letter of Intent (LoI) may be extended beyond three years
by the Central Government for reasons to be recorded in writing, on the advice of the
Commission, which may take into account the preparedness of the institution in respect
of the fulfilment of the conditions of LoI:
Provided further that if the proposal of the sponsoring body is rejected by the Central
Government, the sponsoring body may submit a fresh proposal only after one year.
(7) The sponsoring body shall submit a report regarding the compliance of the conditions
specified in the Letter of Intent (LoI) within a period of three years to the Government,
which shall be forwarded to the Commission for its verification and advice and the
Government may take further steps following the procedure referred to in regulation 6
of these regulations.
8. Off-campus centres.—(1) (i) Institutions deemed to be Universities with minimum ‘A’
grade and above or ranked from 1 to 100 in the “Universities” category of NIRF rankings of
the relevant year are eligible to set up off-campus centres.
(ii) Institutions declared as deemed to be Universities under “distinct category” may apply
for off campuses after five years of their declaration, if they fulfill the criteria specified
in clause (i).
(2) Institutions deemed to be Universities with minimum ‘A’ grade and above or ranked
from 1 to 100 in the “Universities” category of the NIRF rankings of the relevant year
may submit their application to start off-campus centres through the Commission’s
portal along with the following documents, namely:—

(i) from the relevant statutory body (wherever applicable) for approval to set up
off-campus centres or, for issuance of Letter of Intent for setting up off-campus
centres, as the case may be.

(3) By following the procedure specified in these regulations for setting up the off-campus
centres, an institution deemed to be University may also apply on the Commission’s portal
for establishing an off-campus centre by taking over any affiliated college under the same
sponsoring society or trust or company by progressively closing the affiliated college to
convert it into an off- campus centre and a no objection certificate from the affiliating
University shall accompany the application and the affiliating University may decide
on granting no objection certificate to the institution deemed to be University within a
maximum period of sixty days from the date of receipt of the request, failing which it
shall be presumed that the affiliating University has no objection to the application by
the institution deemed to be University for establishing an off-campus centre and in such
cases, the acknowledgement for receipt of the request shall be submitted as a document.
(4) The infrastructure at the proposed off-campus centres shall be in accordance with the
norms and standards specified by the relevant statutory body or the Commission, as the
case may be, and the off-campus centre shall be started with a minimum of five under-
graduate or post-graduate or research or combination thereof with a minimum of one
thousand students, of which not less than one-fifth of the students are post-graduate or
research students with fifty teachers and with required infrastructure facilities.
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University Grants Commission