Students may have to give two common entrance tests (CET) next year if private engineering colleges have their way. Members of the Maharashtra Association of Engineering Colleges (MAEC) have proposed conducting a separate entrance test apart from the MH-CET conducted by the state government. Association members met state higher education minister Rajesh Tope earlier this week to discuss the proposal.
Police officials in Rajasthan illegally sell unidentified corpses to private medical colleges for Rs. 5-7 lakh each, an RTI application by a businessman in Jaipur has revealed. Raj Kumar Soni’s son Rahul was allegedly murdered last year in Sriganganagar district, 500 km from Jaipur.
Nearly a fifth of Australian private colleges are "permanent residency factories", a new report in the education sector has revealed. The education sector, which is the country's third largest export industry, has been affected by a string of assaults on international students, particularly Indians. The claims of exploitation of overseas students have also not helped matters.
The government will allow the private sector to set up medical colleges in backward states, hilly areas and the northeast region, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Monday. "We will allow the private sector to set up medical colleges in backward states, hilly areas and the northeastern region," Azad said here at a healthcare meet organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), an industry lobby.
The government has drawn up a draft law giving itself the power to decide three-fourths of all admissions in private educational institutions, determine their fee structures, and impose government reservation policies on them. It will decide which professional college a student will study in, based on a list of multiple preferences. There will be no ‘domicile criterion’ in admissions.
Marking a major step in the educational sector, the Kerala assembly on Friday unanimously passed a legislation seeking to regulate admissions, fee structures and minority status of self-financing professional colleges. The Bill, piloted by Education Minister MA Baby, was passed by the House in an extended sitting that ended in the wee hours on Friday, with the Congress-led opposition UDF backing it after attacking the LDF government at various stages of the progress of the legislation.
Against the backdrop of a forceful appeal made by NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Maharashtra Government on Wednesday decided to restore reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs in vocational courses of private educational institutions in the state. NCP, a constituent of the DF government in the state along with Congress, expressed satisfaction with the decision after it was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet in Mumbai.
The Union HRD Ministry convened a meeting of all state ministers for higher education to discuss the enactment of a Central legislation to control self-financing institutes like private engineering colleges.
The human resource development (HRD) ministry may allow private players to set up universities instead of going through the "deemed to be university" route. The ministry will also push for firm regulations which would demand transparency and accountability of the players in the education sector.
A new university bill will turn higher education into a business enterprise, according to protesting students. In turn government claims that the bill is radically different from that originally composed three years ago and leaves no room for such fears. The bill deals with funding for only the public sector, whereas management provisions deal with both sectors.
A delegation of private sector universities in the NWFP has asked the governor to help extend the deadline set by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad, to meet the minimum criteria for granting charter, say officials.
Member of Punjab Assembly and standing committee S&GAD; Mrs. Rabia Aliya Khan has stressed the need of more effective contribution of the private sector in the promotion of education in the country.
The Pakistani authority has announced policies on several key issues on private higher education. The government agreed to expedite the establishment of 9 engineering universities with partnering countries such as Austria, Germany, Japan, etc. While these countries will handle administration and personnel of the universities, the Pakistani government will fully take care of the finance. Another issue concerns illegal and substandard universities run by the private sector. The government directs the provincial authorities to close down any private universities illegally operating and downgrade any institutions that fail to improve their standard.
Nine foreign universities that had agreed to set up engineering schools in Pakistan — with their own faculties and administrators — have now decided not to do so because they are leery of the worsening security situation and political uncertainty in the country, a daily newspaper in Pakistan reported, citing an unnamed spokesman of President Pervez Musharraf.
The Triad’s long-established private universities continue to invest heavily in new facilities, at the same time the Triad now hosts two new private schools, South University and Virginia College.
In a previous op-ed (India fails test of 'knowledge economy', Asia Times Online, November 30, 2012), I drew attention to what can be called a "research deficit" in India's higher education. In it, I mentioned a study by Thomson Reuters according to which India produced only 3.5% of the global research output in 2010 and its contribution in most disciplines - including mathematics and computer science - was lower than its overall average.
In a sudden development, the Maharashtra government has dropped the plan to introduce a special act to regulate private universities, which are expected to come up in large numbers. This sudden U-turn by the government came even though the cabinet had cleared the bill by the state higher and technical education department on December 13.
Will the 13 proposed private universities do what the professional colleges did for Karnataka? Both the government and the academics vouch for the need to have private sector participation in higher education and welcome the state legislature's nod to have 13 new private universities in the state. Presently, the state has two private varsities, the Alliance University and Azim Premji University.
Chile’s Justice Minister Teodoro Ribera resigned on Monday amid allegations he has ties to a former director of the country’s accreditation committee, or CNA, which improperly authorized some universities to operate.