With education sector requiring an investment of over $150 billion in the next 10 years, the government has proposed new private partnership models for expansion of higher education sector in the country. The government has proposed setting up of large education hubs in different parts of the country anchored by large public/private sector enterprises funded through their allocations for corporate social responsibility.
A national convention on Higher Education on Monday denounced the three bills introduced by the government for the control of private institutions and universities, as “draconian.”
Rising demand for post-secondary education, lack of government investment in the sector and the deteriorating quality of many public universities has led to an increase in private players in Indian higher education. But the regulation of private institutions has failed to keep up with their rapid growth, leading to concerns about quality and social equity.
Surprisingly, very few appear to have found serious contradictions in the approach of the eleventh plan, which aimed at inclusive growth but through giving the private sector an enhanced role.
India's Parliament has amended the country's Constitution to impose admission quotas for lower castes and classes on nearly all private colleges that do not receive government aid.
As the founder of KIIT University, a top private institution here, Achuyta Samanta has built an institution that occupies dozens of buildings across 350 acres of plush land. Yet he has no office.
India’s university regulator is likely to make it harder to establish private universities in the country as part of an effort to crack down on such institutions, C2live, a news Web site, reports. Many private higher-education providers have been caught offering courses without the regulator’s approval.
Several private universities have opposed some of the higher education bills, making it even more difficult for the government to gain support in parliament.
The Indian higher education system, which witnessed a significant growth over the last decade with private educational institutions playing a catalytic role in that direction, lends its infrastructure to students sponsored by foreign universities. This will not only help Indian institutions to place their credibility on the world map of higher education but also earn foreign exchange for the country.
Higher education reform in India, including proposed bills to allow in foreign universities, has hit another snag after the party leading central government performed below expectations in elections in three out of five states – reducing its room for manoeuvre in pushing key bills through parliament.
It is a story being replayed across many Indian cities. Poorly regulated, unaccredited and often entirely fake colleges have sprung up as demand for higher education accelerates, driven by rising aspirations and a bulging youth population.
Fifteen bills including Private Universities Act and Foreign Education Providers’ Bill are pending in parliament. On the role of private players in the field, he felt that most of the courses offered were market-driven and not holistic. Private players are showing more interest in professional courses in engineering and medicine, he said.
Shri Rajeshji Tope, Minister for Higher and Technical Education, Government of Maharashtra, has said that the state Government will support high-quality research by different private institutions and will also consider more flexibility in admission process in unaided private management institutions to increase Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in Higher Education.
Perturbed over key bills related to reforms in higher education being stuck in Parliament for over two years, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday accused private players running educational institutes of stalling passage of these legislations which seek to raise quality.
Perturbed over key higher education reform bills being stuck in parliament for more than two years, India’s Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal last week accused private education institutions of stalling the passage of legislation that seeks to raise quality, reports The Times of India.
In order to attract private investment in higher education, the government should allocate land free of cost for 999 years to set up educational institutions, a plan panel committee headed by NR Narayana Murthy has suggested.
Education should be kept away from politics. Wherever you have more regulations, you will also have more corruption. That is why private universities were propagated in the first place; to build an environment away from the trifling matters faced in public colleges.
The State Cabinet has cleared the establishment of three more private universities. At least, three more established educational institutions have put their proposal before the government seeking permission to establish private varsities.
Private bodies such as registered societies, trusts or companies and foreign institutions (termed ‘promoters’) will also qualify to set up the non-profit innovation institutions – either through collaboration or independently – after signing an agreement with the government.
It seems imminent, a whole lot of private universities are coming up in the state and are bound to knock traditional universities down a notch (or two) with their breakthrough numbers.
In an effort to broaden the spectrum of higher education, the state government is set to rope in private players and impart quality education at the university level. The effort of the Trinamool government is seen as a step ahead of the erstwhile government's decision to set up a private technical institute of higher learning, like the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication at Kalyani, which didn't materialize.
Aimed at encouraging the involvement of the private sector in the field of higher education, the new guidelines also make it essential for private universities to have infrastructure, including labs and libraries, and qualified teachers as per norms set by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
The bill seeking to set up six private universities in the State would pave the way for enhancing the quality of higher education, Higher Education Minister C T Ravi has said.
The Universities for Research and Innovation Bill 2012, introduced in the Indian national parliament in May, aims to create high-quality research and innovation universities, or world-class universities.
Manipal University is in talks with Chinese officials to open the first campus of an Indian university in China, writes Ananth Krishnan for The Hindu. The Karnataka-based private university is exploring a tie-up with Tianjin University and Shanghai's Tongji University to provide training in information technology and sciences.
Did private professional college managements play a role in the recent exit of the executive director of Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA)? Sources in the state higher education department suspect so since KEA’s former executive director V Rashmi was adamant on taking action against private professional colleges for collecting excess fee from students who got undergraduate seats through Common Entrance Test (CET) 2012.
Surprisingly India, which has a severe infrastructure deficit and is a comparatively poor nation, has found itself in a unique place that remains unparalleled in richer nations. Today, around 80% of India’s higher education and healthcare is provided by private agencies without any aid whatsoever from the government.
When resources are limited, philanthropy isn't the best practice. Advocating this mantra, the Planning Commission has retained a suggestion to allow higher education institutions to run for profit in the final draft of the 12th Five-Year Plan.
Those planning to set up private universities in the state will now have to follow a new mandatory condition - they will have to provide 50% of seats to students from Karnataka. Otherwise the state government will not provide them private university status.
The government will fix social responsibility and control private universities so that there will not be scope for monopoly, Ravi told mediapersons. He said seven institutions have applied for setting up private universities in the State.
Resource constraints will make it difficult to meet the need of expanding higher education entirely through the public sector, hence private investments in higher education, including under PPP mode, would be encouraged," President Mukherjee said while addressing the fourth convocation of LNMU.
When the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulations of Entry and Operations) Bill was introduced in parliament in 2010, no less than 50 foreign universities showed interest in setting up operations in India. Two years down the line, their interest seems to have dwindled
Private Universities in India have grown from 16 to 140 in five years (124%) and from 100 to 140 in less than a year. This is astonishing growth as only universities in India have degree awarding power. Colleges are "affiliated" to universities as teaching institutions.
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.
Indian universities in the private sector need to look for diverse sources of funding rather than depending solely on tuition fees if they want to improve education quality, a higher education panel has concluded.
Specially on the role of private sector in higher education, ASHE 2012 report says that the private participation in the education sector should of quality and of great intent. Taking cue from the success of private involvement in education in the 11th Plan, the report says that private sector should be encouraged to establish larger and higher quality institutions in the 12th Plan
A report on status of higher education prepared by Planning Commission and industry body CII has favoured greater participation of private sector in higher education with the establishment of larger and higher quality institutions during the 12th Plan Period.
Lovely Professional U., in northern India, boasts of its modern infrastructure, especially compared with the bare-bones campuses of many public universities. LPU's campus features Wi-Fi, a shopping mall, and restaurants.
India's Parliament has amended the country's Constitution to impose admission quotas for lower castes and classes on nearly all private colleges that do not receive government aid. Only unaided, minority-run institutions are exempt from the quotas established under last month's near-unanimous vote.
In a judgment that could limit access to professional education, India's Supreme Court ruled last month that colleges that do not receive government aid are not required to use state admission quotas for students from minority groups and lower castes.
The campus of Mewar University, one of 108 private universities established in the underdeveloped state of Chhattisgarh during the past two years, is a two-room house on a busy thoroughfare. One room is empty, except for a telephone; the other -- also a tiny, empty cell -- has "library" painted on the door. There is not a teacher, student, or book in sight.
India's Supreme Court quashed a provision of a state law this month that allowed the establishment of private universities in the State of Chhattisgarh, in central India. The court called the three-year-old provision "unconstitutional" and canceled the registrations of all 108 private universities in the state, Some 20,000 students are enrolled in the institutions.
A private Indian university plans to open a campus for 15,000 foreign students in London, it was announced today as Boris Johnson continued his whirlwind tour of the country to promote links with the United Kingdom.
Manipal Global Education Services, the Rs 1,200 crore higher education major, is looking to spin off its overseas arm into a separate entity. The overseas arms with operations in Malaysia, Nepal, Antigua and Dubai contribute as much as 55 per cent to the revenues and this will be the precursor to raising $100 million through the private equity route in the overseas arm.
The present academic year in India has experienced chaos following fee hikes, public demonstrations and staying of admissions in private medical colleges. Following the Supreme Court judgment in October 2002, some private medical colleges in Mumbai had raised annual fees from about $2,500 to $7,500. In its judgement, the court had allowed financially independent private sector to run professional colleges, a right granted earlier only to minorities based upon religion or language.
Sylvan Learning Systems is extending its reach in international higher education to India. The company announced last month that it had put a down payment on a 250-acre site near Hyderabad, in south-central India, where it hopes to develop a university that would eventually enroll about 10,000 students in career-oriented programs.
India's Supreme Court has ordered each state to review private institutions' tuition to forbid "profiteering." The Court's ruling mainly results from the for-profit orientation of many Indian private institutions-and their questionable quality. The fast private growth of Indian higher education due to the increasing demand for access has resulted in the sale of seats in many private institutions.
In a judgment that could limit access to professional education, India's Supreme Court ruled last month that colleges that do not receive government aid are not required to use state admission quotas for students from minority groups and lower castes.
A hectic lobbying is on at the state and national level by the managements of the 27 private medical colleges in the state to stall the proposal for online counselling for management quota seats this year. College managements say that Rs 700-800 crore is riding on these seats even as state health officials are busy putting together possible solutions to deal with the medical admission chaos this year.
In a setback to the Centre's proposed legislation for regulating admissions to and fee structures in private professional educational institutions, which also provides for reservation, a seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court on Friday ruled out quotas in them.
THE HIGHER Education Department will initiate strict action against the private colleges that do not adhere to the rules. Also the recognition of such colleges could be cancelled, the Principal Secretary of the department Dr Bhagirath Prasad has warned.
Students and teachers in private colleges and universities would soon be eligible for government scholarships and research grants. The University Grants Commission has finalized a proposal to provide financial help to self-financing colleges. “The commission had discussed the proposal but no final decision has been made. The issue would be taken up in the next commission meeting,” UGC secretary RK Chauhan told Hindustan Times.
The Government of Madhya Pradesh issued the following press release: The State Government has put a ban on use of the words 'Indian' and 'National' by the private colleges with their name running in the state
FOLLOWING UP its warning to private technical colleges regarding charging of higher fees, the Directorate of Technical Education on Wednesday cracked down on at least three private colleges in the City, checking their records, mainly vis-à-vis collection of fees.
NEARLY 1005 students, who have cleared B.Ed entrance examination conducted by the Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University (CSJMU), have become the victim of the ongoing tussle among the management of the various private colleges running the B.Ed courses. They could not get admission till date.
As many as 138 private institutes across the country, including 65 management and 15 engineering colleges, have sought permission to close from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). This is more than three times the number of institutes that had come up with the request last year.
The Bombay High Court, on Tuesday, asked the state government what it proposed to do to ensure seats in private medical colleges were not blocked in the name of students already admitted in government medical colleges. These seats ended up being filled through management quotas of the private colleges.
Students in self-financing universities and colleges may soon be eligible for a large number of University Grants Commission (UGC) fellowships and scholarships that at present are open only to students from institutions receiving government grants. The UGC has proposed allowing students from private universities benefits like the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and the Post Graduate Merit Scholarship, top government officials revealed.
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.
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.
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.
Karnataka, whose capital Bangalore is a major attraction for students across India for education, particularly engineering and medical courses, is to get 13 more private universities, taking their total to 15.
Punjab assembly passed two controversial bills on Friday, paving the way for two private universities to come up in the state even as the treasury benches ridiculed private varsities terming them as teaching shops set up to mint money.
The Supreme Court, while deciding to examine the validity of the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET), has permitted private medical colleges to conduct their own entrance tests for admission to MBBS/postgraduate/dental courses but they should not declare the results until its further orders.