Private 'deemed' universities (institutions with considerable autonomy) will no longer be free to decide their fees or admission policies. The Human Resource Development Ministry has decided to let the University Grants Commission enforce its first-ever regulations on tuition fees and admission at deemed universities, writes Basant Kumar Mohanty for the Telegraph India.

Under the new rules, a government panel will decide the fees and deemed universities will be barred from admitting students without an entrance test. Each institution can conduct its own test, or a consortium of deemed universities can hold a national-level entrance exam.

Officials said the new regulations would mainly affect the 90 private institutions among the country's 130 deemed universities. The ones run by the government do hold entrance tests and charge low fees, they said. "The private deemed universities charge exorbitant fees. Nor do they follow a transparent system of admission. Till now, there have been no checks on their fee structures or admission processes," a senior ministry official said.
Full report on the Telegraph India site