Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday welcomed the central government's move to scrap the concept of deemed universities but sought a clarification on why only some had been de-recognised.

The central government has recommended cancellation of the deemed university status of 44 institutions, of which 16 are located in Tamil Nadu.

"The issue of de-recognition of 16 deemed universities was discussed with the Chief Minister. While the centre's move is welcome, scrapping recognition of a select few will raise some questions," Higher Education Minister K.Ponmudi told reporters here.

He said the state government concurs with Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal, who had said the concept of deemed universities will be abolished but stressed the laws must be changed so that the universities function in sync with the state governments.

He assured that the state government would ensure that the future of students of deemed universities whose recognition is cancelled would not be affected.

"The deemed universities will be converted into self-financing colleges and they will be affiliated to the state-run universities," Ponmudi said.

The one major advantage will be that the students will be paying much lower fees - prescribed by the government - and not the fees charged by the deemed universities.

In India, there are 126 deemed universities of which 28 are in Tamil Nadu. Out of these, the central government has recommended cancellation of the deemed status to 16 universities.

Most of the deemed universities are run by politicians or their kin. IANS