State Education Minister Ramanlal Vora moved the Gujarat Private Universities Bill, 2009, seeking to set up private universities, in the Legislative Assembly here on Thursday.
Replying to a debate on the Private Universities Bill, 2009 in the Assembly on Friday, Education Minister Ramanlal Vora said the gross enrolment ratio in higher education (in the age group 18-23) in the state was lower, though marginal, than the national average.
Gujarat government on Friday admitted that the picture of state's higher education is not very rosy, one of the major reasons why it became essential to come up with the Gujarat Private Universities Bill, 2009. Concluding the debate on the Bill, education minister Ramanlal Vora said, the gross enrolment ratio in the age-group 18-23, or higher education, in Gujarat is lower than the national average. "It is 11 per cent in India, while it is 10 per cent in Gujarat", he said.
Private sector participation is seen necessary to reach the goal of doubling higher education's capacity. But the report lashes its whip at those private universities which make profitability their singular focus. It recommends massive modification in the legal framework to tighten regulations on auditing the accounts of such universities, on transparency, on paying a minimum salary to the teachers and so on.
The Delhi Declaration also acknowledges the role of private initiatives in meeting the rapidly growing need for higher education, particularly technical and professional courses. However, the participating nations were of the view that private institutions should be inclusive in their approach to access.
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 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.
In this context the committee has noted with concern the unregulated growth of the private sector in education, in particular private institutions that have acquired the status of deemed universities chiefly to gain degree-granting powers with a commercial and profit-making motive.
The State Government has approved the first private university in the State to be set up by the Azim Premji Foundation under an Act of the Karnataka legislature. The university will promote quality education management programmes and training for teaching staff.
Under fire over alleged corruption in granting deemed university status to private educational institutes, the ministry of human resource development (HRD), which oversees education, on Friday ordered that the fee committees of state governments fix and regulate fees charged by such institutions.
The news that hit the headlines when the Orissa Assembly was in session in July last was the resistance of the Opposition to the Education Bill that sought the approval of the House for the opening of the three new private universities, namely, the Vedanta University, the Sri Sri University and the ICFAI University which would adopt the state-of-the-art technology in imparting education to the students.
Because of the huge faculty shortage in India, the Indian government has now prohibited private higher-educational institutions here from using Indian faculty members when setting up campuses abroad, The Times of India reported today. Those institutions will also be forbidden to move profits from their domestic campuses to their foreign ones, or to cross-subsidize them.