Bhubaneswar, Feb. 19: The National Institute of Science Education and Research (Niser) here gets a new lease of life with the Centre giving its nod to declare it as an off-campus centre of the Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai.

The Union ministry of human resource development has issued the approval on the advice of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Niser was in a fix after the UGC on November 9 directed many deemed universities to shut down their off-campus centres on the ground that they were "unauthorised" and set up without its permission. The Bhubaneswar institute, which is affiliated with the Homi Bhabha National Institute, was among the off-campus centres put on notice. However, it is now the first off-campus centre, out of those put on notice, to get the central approval.

The commission had raised objections stating that the UGC (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations Act allows only six off-campus centres, but the Bhabha institute has 10 constituent units.

The Mumbai institute was declared as an as institution deemed to be university on July 3, 2005. The Centre declares those institutes of higher education - other than varsities - working at a high standard in specific area of study as institutions deemed to be university on the UGC's advice.

The Bhabha institute had submitted a proposal to the human resource development ministry in 2010 to set up Niser as its off-campus centre in Bhubaneswar.

The existing units of the Bhabha institute include the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Calcutta, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Calcutta, Institute of Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, Harish Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad, Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai and the Institute of Mathematical Science, Chennai.

On February 4 - before Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the permanent campus of Niser - the UGC had agreed to declare Niser as an off-campus centre of the Bhabha institute. Since then, it had been awaiting the ministry's approval.

"With the central approval, Niser will also be one of the constituent units of the Homi Bhabha National Institute," said Niser registrar A.K. Naik.

Now, the approval allows Niser to conduct academic programmes, which are subject to review of the UGC biennially for six years and then after every five years.