PANAJI
The Goa Assembly on Thursday passed the amendment to the Goa Private Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2025, to permit off-campus temporary centres from where the university can immediately operate until a full-fledged campus is established within a limited time period.
The amendment tweaks Section 6 of the 2020 law, introducing a phrase therein which states that the private universities may "possess an off-campus centre adhering to the guidelines of the regulatory body so as to start the operation of the university in the initial stages until the expiry of the maximum period specified in subsection (2) of this section or until the main campus is established, whichever is earlier."
The Bill was passed by a 23-7 vote, when the Opposition objected to the Bill and demanded a division.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who piloted the Bill, said thousands of Goan students who do not make it to professional colleges on merit move out of the State, and such students can be served by private universities setting up here.
He dismissed fears expressed by Opposition MLAs that it would encourage fly-by-night operators and the danger of Goan students getting duped by fake claims of such universities.
Sawant said only private universities already established for 10 years or more were being entertained by the government.
Earlier, Opposition Leader Yuri Alemao and other Opposition MLAs Carlos Alvares Ferreira, Cruz Silva, and Vijai Sardesai questioned the government's largesse to private universities, evident from multiple amendments made to the 2020 law to permit and regulate private universities in the State.
