Dr Manasvi M Kamat
After the Telangana government cleared the Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) Act 2018, the State received around a dozen applications. Of the 12 applications received, 10 of these varsities would be coming up in Hyderabad alone.
The invitation to set up private universities was for two categories; greenfield (new ones) and brownfield (existing institutions). Greenfield universities would have full autonomy to decide fee, curriculum and other aspects, while the brownfield ones will follow existing norms. Both require a corpus of Rs 30 crore apart from Rs10 crore endowment fund.
A Private University is a university established through a State/Central Act by a sponsoring body viz A Society registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860, or any other corresponding law for the time being in force in a State or a Public Trust or a Company registered under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956.
Majority of applications received by the Telegana State were of those private universities willing to offer engineering courses. Of these, some of them have already been forwarded to the government for its perusal while half a dozen existing colleges in the applied to turn their institutions into private varsities. Some players like the Radcliffe University, Woxsen University, Amity University and Tech Mahindra, have applied including Hyderabad based MNR College, wanting to set up a medical university. The Pune-based National Institute of Construction Management and Research has applied to start a varsity dedicated to infrastructure and construction.
After passing the Private Universities Act and notification issued by the State Government, the respective University is asked to submit detailed information to the University Grants Commission (UGC) in a prescribed format for inspection. UGC constitutes an Expert Committee to assess fulfillment of criteria in terms of programmes, faculty, infrastructural facilities, financial viability, etc in the Private University in accordance with the UGC (Establishment of and Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities) Regulations, 2003.
The parliament was recently informed that as on December 2019, India has more than 920 universities, out of which 404 are State Universities, 126 are Deemed to be Universities, 50 are Central Universities while 344 Private Universities functioning in the country.
While many State governments are eager to offer a red carpet welcome to private universities, the Centre is now inching ahead to clamp the private universities. In response to the UGC requirement, as of now 263 Private Universities have submitted their information to UGC for inspection. Out of these, 132 Private Universities have submitted their compliance reports which have been noted by the Commission.
In order to further regulate the private varsities and keep a check on the ‘exorbitant’ fees charged by several private and deemed universities, the UGC came up with draft rules called as the UGC (Fees in professional education imparted by private aided and unaided institutions deemed to be universities) Regulations, 2019. This was done following a directive from the Supreme Court. The purpose of this regulation is to regulate fees private and private aided deemed universities charge for professional education.
A 2015 paper, ‘Private Universities in India Growth Status and Concern’ authored by one Sangeeta Angom at the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) had found several malpractices by many private institutes. Several privately managed higher education institutions have not been returning certificates or refunding fees when students withdraw from a course after getting admission. They are also found to indulge in several other malpractices, offering poor quality education, providing poor quality teachers as well as poor infrastructural facilities etc, such as paying poor salary, asking teachers to convince prospective students to take admission and collecting fees on various purposes without issuing receipts.
Currently no mechanism exists as of now to regulate fees charged by these institutes, though the UGC had made a similar attempt in 2011 that fell through for lack of government clearance. According to the draft rules, the UGC would set up one or more committees to fix the fee structure for each of the nearly 100 private and private aided deemed universities after considering a number of criteria, including average per-seat cost, quantum of aid and the demography of the area. The per-seat cost will be worked out by calculating the expenditure on salary and allowances for teachers and staff, maintenance of building, laboratory and other infrastructure, and amortisation of the capital invested. While calculating the fee, the committee will also provide for a reasonable surplus of 10 to 15 per cent for the institution to plough back the fund for expansion.
The number of private universities in northern India has nearly doubled in the past five years and this market was growing at more than 25 percent a year. The focus area in the upcoming year should be to improve the quality of research. However, this comes with a challenge as these institutions cannot depend on fees from students for funding. The government always discriminates when it comes to providing grants to these academic institutions.
The new development in Telagana has a new tale to tell. The State governments are not interested in setting up government-funded State universities, including in the newly-formed districts. To improve the reach of quality higher education in far-flung and dispersed areas, it is imperative that we must establish more universities to make possible higher-education more affordable. With State governments shying away to open up their purses and private universities not interested to open up in areas other than big cities, the students from semi-urban and rural populations will continue to remain disadvantaged.
