The Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), a leading institution for journalism and mass communication, has been granted deemed university status by the Ministry of Education.
With this new status, IIMC is now authorised to offer degrees, including doctoral.
The UGC had demanded the deemed university status under a distinct category.
The status extends to IIMC New Delhi and its five regional campuses located in Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir), Amravati (Maharashtra), Aizawl (Mizoram), Kottayam (Kerala), and Dhenkanal (Odisha).
"A big thanks to the Ministry of Education for declaring IIMC New Delhi and its five regional centres as a Deemed to be University. IIMC is committed to giving its best to promote education, training, and research in mass communication," the institute stated in a post on its social media handle X, formerly Twitter.
The institute was set up under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, on 17 August 1965. It is one of the elite institutions known for offering quality training in journalism.
The IIMC also serves as the training academy for officers of the Indian Information Service (IIS).
The notion of bestowing deemed university status upon the IIMC is not a recent one. The plan received approval from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in 2016.
During a review of higher education institutions by Niti Aayog in 2018, there was a suggestion to merge the IIMC with either Jawaharlal Nehru University's Centre for Media Studies or Jamia Millia Islamia's AJK Mass Communication Research Centre.
However, the institute, along with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and the Education Ministry (then HRD), had dismissed the proposal.