HRD Urges Rajasthan Govt. to Stop Attesting BITS Pilani Degrees Off Centers

A new twist has been added to the BITS Pilani and center controversy. The plot changed when the HRD Ministry clarified on what it really meant by its past orders according to which the Rajasthan Government will now have to close down its off-campus centers which are currently in Hyderabad and Goa. Now BITS-Pilani won’t be able to hand out degrees, diploma or certificates from there.

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There has been a fight regarding the same between BITS-Pilani and UGC for a very long time now. On November 9, 2015, UGC which is working under the HRD Ministry, issued a letter to the 10 institutes including BITS Pilani, directing it to close down their off-campus centres. The reason behind this was that while setting up these institutes, the Deemed University Regulations was not followed and they were constructed without permission.

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After this, BITS-Pilani, decided to go to Delhi High Court regarding the same issue. According to the new verdict passed by the Delhi High Court, UGC was then asked to take a coercive action.

In a letter to V S Oberoi, Centre’s higher education secretary, Raj Hans Upadhyay who is the additional chief secretary of Rajasthan government, asked for clarity on whether they can run their off campus centers and hand degrees, diplomas and certificates from there. To this the ministry replied that both the off centers of BITS Pilani are illegal and therefore handing out any degree or diploma to any student in the name of BITS Pilani Rajasthan would not be allowed.

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For all those students who are currently associated with BITS Pilani’s centers in Hyderabad and Goa, this is a bad news as the educational qualification received from these two institutes would not be related to BIT’s branch in Pilani.

According to an official from the Rajasthan Government who does not wish to be named said that the government received a letter from the Ministry in which it was clearly defined that the off campus centers at Goa and Hyderabad have not been approved resulting which, the government will now should not authenticate degrees of institutes.