Sabarmati University:
Recognised on the Main Campus, Nowhere Else

Background: why this RTI was filed

A university's name on a certificate settles very little on its own. What matters to an employer or a credential evaluator is narrower: was this programme, taught at this place, one the institution was permitted to run? Indian private universities are created by state legislation, and that legislation does not carry across state borders or down to a franchised classroom in another city.

That gap is where a large share of Indian education fraud lives. A genuine university is recognised; a centre operating in its name three states away may never have been approved by anybody. Certificates issued through such arrangements can look flawless and still be worthless.

This RTI was filed with the University Grants Commission to establish, on the record, exactly which of these categories applies to Sabarmati University, Ahmedabad — previously known as Calorx Teacher's University. The application was made on 09.07.2022 and reached the UGC on 18.07.2022. The reply, numbered F. 1-1653/2022(RIA) (CPP-I/PU), was issued in October 2022 over the signature of the Under Secretary and Central Public Information Officer, and carries a dispatch stamp of 31 October 2022.

What the UGC confirmed

On the central question of the university's standing, the reply is affirmative and specific. Sabarmati University, formerly Calorx Teacher's University, Ahmedabad, “has been established/notified on 07.07.2009 by an Act of State Legislature of Gujarat as a Private University”. It is, in the UGC's words, “empowered to award degrees as specified under Section 22 of the UGC Act”.

That empowerment, however, arrives with its conditions written into the same sentence. The degrees may be awarded “through its main campus in regular mode”, with the approval of the university's statutory bodies and of the relevant statutory councils wherever required, and only after the university has created the required academic and physical infrastructure — library, laboratories, teaching and supporting staff — to the norms laid down by the UGC and other statutory councils.

Read carefully, the sentence recognises a university and fences it in at the same time. Main campus. Regular mode. Statutory council approval where required.

What the UGC said it had not approved

The second paragraph of the composite reply is the one that matters most to anyone holding a certificate issued somewhere other than Ahmedabad. The UGC states that the university “is not authorized to open study centre/ off campus centre beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the state”, citing the Supreme Court's judgment in Prof. Yashpal vs. State of Chhattisgarh — the decision that curtailed the practice of state private universities operating campuses nationwide.

The restriction does not stop at the state line. The reply continues that the university “cannot open its centre(s) even within the state” without UGC approval, under the UGC (Establishment of and Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities) Regulations, 2003. And then the flat statement of fact: “The UGC has not granted any approval to the University to open off campus/study centre.”

A third paragraph closes the remaining route. The university “cannot offer its programmes through franchising arrangement with Private coaching institutions even for the purpose of conducting of courses through distance mode”.

On complaints and on verification

Asked about complaints, the UGC replied that it “does not maintained specific data in respect of complaints received”, and that complaints are sent on to the universities concerned. For a regulator, that is a candid admission: the central body holds no complaint register an employer could consult.

Asked about verification, the UGC pointed away from itself. Degrees, diplomas and certificates “are verified/validated by the issuing authority i.e. concerned university/institution only”, because admission and pass records are maintained by the institution. Verification, the reply concludes, “is the responsibility of university concerned”. Questions on distance education were directed to the Distance Education Bureau at 35, Firozeshah Road, New Delhi.

One question — number 3 — was declined outright: the information was “not under the control of this CPIO”, and the application was transferred to the university in Ahmedabad.

Key findings

“The UGC has not granted any approval to the University to open off campus/study centre.”

— University Grants Commission, RTI reply F. 1-1653/2022(RIA) (CPP-I/PU), October 2022

What employers and students should know

Employers and screening agencies should treat the place of study as a separate question from the name on the certificate. A Sabarmati University degree earned on the Ahmedabad main campus in regular mode sits squarely within what the UGC described. A certificate in the same name obtained through a study centre, an off-campus centre or a franchised coaching institution does not, on the face of this reply, correspond to anything the UGC had approved as at October 2022. Ask the candidate where they studied, and verify with the university itself — which, as the UGC points out, is the only body that can confirm it.

Students and prospective applicants should be wary of any enrolment offered in this university's name at a location other than the main campus, and of any arrangement routed through a private coaching institution. The reply states plainly that such franchising is not permitted. Before paying a fee, ask for the approval letter in writing and check it against the university's own admissions office.

Existing graduates of the main campus have no cause for alarm from this document. It does not question their degrees. It questions a delivery model, not an institution's standing.