After beating their chests over increasing seats in engineering, management, pharmacy and diploma courses, the state government is gulping down its throat a bitter pill this year. A total of 25 private technical colleges of MBA, MCA, pharmacy and engineering have decided to close shops and a formal letter has already been sent to the Gujarat Technological University (GTU). The one reason they have echoed is that none of these institutes have been able to get any student this year.
The State government has decided to shelve the Private Universities Bill and instead come up with model guidelines for opening private varsities in Maharashtra.
Even as Punjab government is bracing itself to hold the statewide joint entrance test (JET) for admission to polytechnic colleges, the clamor by private colleges to discontinue the test has grown louder. With less than one-fourth seats being filled than the students taking the exams, the futility of the exercise, proving to be expensive for the cash-strapped government, is being questioned.
In the wake of anomalies unearthed in admissions to two self-financing medical colleges, the governing council of Kerala University of Health and Allied Sciences (KUHAS) has decided to verify the certificates of all students admitted to the colleges affiliated to it in 2012-13 and cross check the list of students given by colleges to the admissions supervisory committee headed by Justice P A Mohammed with those sent to the university for registration during the period.
A number of new private universities with liberal arts programs have sprung up in India. There were fewer than 20 such schools in 2005, and there are more than 100 now, according to a report by Shiv Nadar University.
A month after the Maharashtra cabinet cleared a mandatory 25% caste and socio-economic quota in the Private Universities Bill, the state has developed cold feet over its implementation.
The ruling BJP, in its hurry to sanction permission to establish new private universities in the State, has even bypassed the Karnataka State Higher Education Council by not getting the feasibility report from it to open certain universities.
Suspecting a bigger scam in granting of approval by Dental Council of India to private colleges, CBI today expanded its probe searching premises of three members of the Council's Executive committee and six private dental colleges.
Private engineering colleges in the state have reiterated their demand to fill up 10% seats through management or NRI quota for the 2012-13 academic session.
State government’s proposal to set up engineering colleges in the state with an aim to improve the quality of technical education for students with subsidised fees has come as jolt to private colleges in the state operating with poor infrastructure and inadequate teaching staff.
Even as the Supreme Court's verdict on National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for medical and dental courses is awaited, private colleges have started conducting their own entrance exams. Caught in the middle of the Centre versus state tussle are thousands of students who have no idea what the future holds for them.
Following the footsteps of private engineering colleges, private medical colleges have demanded a hike in the fees of under graduate medical course seats obtained through CET 2013.
The managements of private engineering colleges are of the view that arriving at an agreement with the government on the fee structure and seat sharing matrix for CET, 2013 will be difficult unless it considers hiking fees in private colleges.
Minister for Higher Education C.T. Ravi on Wednesday told the Legislative Assembly that all private universities in the State have to set aside 40 per cent of seats for students from Karnataka and follow the reservation system as per government orders.
Tabling of Private Universities Bill raised a furore in the legislative council on Thursday, with JD(S) leader M C Nanaiah alleging a ‘business deal’ was being struck, to allow setting up private universities in the state.
The Legislative Council on Tuesday gave its nod for setting up three more private universities in the State, CMR University, New Baldwin University and Presidency University.
Legislative council on Tuesday approved the establishment of three private universities in the state and of them all the three are located in Bangalore. Universities are, one will be started by C M R Janaradhana trust , second by Baldwin education society and the third by Presidency education society .
The bills which were passed in the Council in a matter of ten minutes, without any discussion, saw its members stage a walkout in protest against the government’s move. Though members in the Assembly did not staunchly oppose the bills, they did question the credentials of the varsities proposed to be set up.
Having opposed the setting up of private universities in Himachal Pradesh, claiming that in the name of universities, shops are being opened, the Congress party has finally succeeded in starting a government probe into the opening of such universities. Besides checking the records, revenue officials are conducting physical verification of these universities to find out the truth.
Both the Houses of the State Legislature adopted four more private university Bills on the last day of the budget session amid protest by the Opposition parties, who took exception to the indiscriminate and the hurried manner in which approvals were being granted to the private universities raising suspicion of involvement of “business interests”.
The state government has recommended the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) not to extend the approval of three engineering colleges in the state for the academic year 2013-'14.
Eleven private dental colleges of Punjab have admitted 456 students to the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course even though they had “not qualified” the 2012 Pre-Medical Entrance Test (PMET), according to a “most urgent” communication of the Dental Council of India (DCI).
We welcome the government's plan to set up an accreditation council which will independently review the academic standards of private universities. This will increase transparency of the institutions, allowing people to know university rankings and to ensure healthy competition among private educational institutions and quality education overall.
After the state legislative assembly passed a bill paving the way for a private university, Techno India University, last year, the state cabinet on January 19 approved proposals for setting up more private universities here.
The State government, under fire for the hurried passing of Bills allowing over 15 private universities to be set up, has given them permission to acquire educational institutions, albeit with its prior approval.
To become a knowledge economy in the true sense of the term our country needs many more quality higher education institutes (over and above the ones that already exist) in the private sector. This is because the government aided higher education colleges in the league of the IIT’s and IIM’s manage to accommodate only a very small percentage of meritorious candidates every year.
In a major breakthrough in the Maharshi Dayanand University answer sheet scam in Rohtak, the police on Tuesday nabbed two professors of private engineering colleges affiliated to the varsity.
Officers and employees of aided private colleges in Madhya Pradesh will be given 101 percent dearness allowance, according to a press release here on Thursday
The state government has decided to introduce a bill that would facilitate the setting up of private universities in Bihar, a move that would herald a new era in the higher education sector.
The state government is working on a Bill that will be presented in the state assembly for the framing of an Act to facilitate the opening of private universities in the state. It would be tabled in the state assembly during the current session itself, said education minister P K Shahi on Wednesday.
Private engineering colleges have taken strong exception to the state government's decision to increase seats in government-run colleges while stopping the private ones from hiking their intake capacity.
After downsizing, private engineering colleges in the state are planning substantial increase in fees from the forthcoming academic year. At least 40 private engineering colleges have been pleading to revise their annual fees.
Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh on Monday said the government will not issue licences to new private universities in the state, saying they are "not needed in a small state".
The government's move to bring a Bill for facilitating the opening of private universities in the state has evoked mixed response among the academics. While some have reservations against the private sector investment in higher education, others are not opposed to the idea of opening private universities.
The Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP) on Friday alleged that there was large-scale corruption in granting permission to establish over a dozen private universities in the State.
In the run-up to Karnataka’s forthcoming assembly polls, the B S Yeddyurappa-led KJP has sought to put the ruling BJP on the defensive by alleging large-scale corruption in the Jagadish Shettar regime’s decision in favour of granting permission to establish over a dozen of private universities in the State.
Even as calls are growing louder against the State government for allowing as many as 17 private universities to be set up in the State, Governor and Chancellor of universities H.R. Bhardwaj has given his approval to eight of them. This means that eight of the Bills that were passed by the Legislative Assembly and Council are now Acts, paving the way for their enforcement.
Four more Sambalpur-based private colleges have come under scrutiny even as the Crime Branch on Tuesday arrested Subash Barik, a close aide of Chairman of Shandilya College of Science and Commerce Kartik Chandra Barik.
Speaking about the modus operandi of the incident, Sharma said Behera had provided the question paper of physics on March 6 evening to Barik. Crime Branch officials suspect involvement of more private colleges in the question paper leak incident.
Minister of State for Higher Education Badri Narayan Patra on Thursday assured the Assembly that the Government will review the functioning and the fee structure of the private colleges.
The state government has reduced the land holding limit for establishing private universities in the state. Accordingly, private universities will now be allowed to be set on an area of around 10 acres as against 50 acres previously.
The issue of allowing private universities to set up campuses in Himachal Pradesh came up in the state assembly Tuesday with members raising questions about the credentials of some of these institutions.
Himachal Pradesh government stated in the assembly that it is not certain about the authenticity of degrees being provided by the fifteen private universities which came up in the state during last BJP rule.
The issue of permission granted to large number of private universities to set up campuses in Himachal Pradesh and land purchased by them, rocked Assembly on Tuesday with members questioning the credentials of these universities and the degrees being awarded by them.