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.