NCERT has been granted deemed-to-be university status, allowing it to award its own degrees, the Centre announced. The move covers its regional institutes and enables research and doctoral programmes. The body must follow UGC norms, avoid commercial activities, and introduce new courses only as per regulatory guidelines.

New Delhi, Apr 3: The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has been formally declared a deemed-to-be university empowering it to award its own degrees, officials said.

"The Ministry of Education, on the advice of the University Grants Commission (UGC), NCERT along with its six constituent units have been declared as deemed to be University under distinct category," an official notification said.

These constituent units include regional institutes of education in Ajmer, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Mysuru and Shillong, along with the Pandit Sunderlal Sharma Central Institute of Vocational Education in Bhopal.

As the apex organisation for school education, the NCERT undertakes various activities and programmes, including educational research and innovation, curriculum development and development of textual and teaching-learning materials.