New Delhi, Jan. 19: Institutions seeking deemed university status citing plans to focus on cutting edge areas of research and teaching will be held accountable to their promises by the government under proposed regulations currently being finalised.

Expansion plans of deemed universities will also be dependent on their ability to first showcase quality in their existing colleges under the regulations that are aimed at strict monitoring of these institutions.

The regulations will in particular target institutions granted the status under a category known as de-novo -- fresh in Latin -- deemed universities, top sources associated with the drafting confirmed to The Telegraph.

These are institutions which sought -- and obtained -- deemed university status despite being relatively new colleges citing the argument that they needed autonomy to focus on research and teaching in cutting edge areas.

While information technology was most commonly cited as their area of interest by aspirants for the deemd tag during the early 2000s, biotechnology has emerged as the stated field of interest in more recent times.

The regulations, which may be finalised by a task force at a meeting on January 21, are unlikely to altogether end the provision that allows the government powers to grant deemed university status to new institutions.

But they will for the first time put in place a monitoring mechanism ensuring that de novo deemed universities do not forfeit commitments to research in a new field after winning the deemed tag, the sources said.

An assessment of the viability of teaching and research in the proposed cutting edge area will also precede any decision to grant deemed university status to these institutions, under the regulations.

The regulations will require all deemed universities to perform higher than a fixed grade during accreditation by recognised rating firms, to establish fresh centres or campuses, sources said.

Once finalised, the regulations will replace University Grants Commission guidelines labelled by many officials as too lax and responsible for the proliferation of deemed universities.

The human resource development ministry is expected to place these regulations before the Supreme Court once they are finalised.

The regulations follow findings of a review panel that indicted 44 deemed univeresities as unfit for the tag.

These include 16 from Tamil Nadu, 6 from Karnataka, 4 from Uttar Pradesh, 3 each from Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan, 2 each from Haryana and Orissa, and one each from Delhi, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Bihar.

The panel, set up last year by human resource development minister Kapil Sibal, recommened three years for another 44 institutions to pull up their socks.

The team found 38 of India’s 130 deemed universities worthy of the status -- which allows institutions the power to award degrees.

The HRD ministry had yesterday filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court articulating plans to withdraw deemed university status from

the 44 institutions indicted as unfit.

Many of them claim to offer medical and engineering degrees without even laboratory facilities, the review panel found, describing these institutions as focused on "family fiefdoms" rather than "academic quality."

The review panel, it is learnt, found that many de novo deemed universities had never seriously pursued research and teaching in the field they cited to obtain the power to award degrees.

If the Supreme Court -- which is hearing the case on January 25 -- accepts the HRD ministry’s plans, institutions stripped of deemed university status will be assisted by the government in obtaining affiliation from state universities.

Once affiliated to a state university, the former deemed universities can function as colleges -- students will receive degrees from the affiliating university.

The HRD ministry will write to state chief ministers and Governors -- Chancellors of state universities -- seeking their cooperation in affiliating the institutions stripped of deemed university status, sources said.

"We will ensure that not a single child is adversely affected," Sibal said today.

All other deemed universities -- allowed to continue with the tag -- will need to follow the new regulations.