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.
Ten years after private engineering colleges made their way in the state in 2002, the cash-strapped state is all set to throw open its doors to self-financing degree colleges and universities as in other parts of the country. The proposal will be placed in the Cabinet for the final nod.
Pitching for the private sector to play a bigger role in higher education, President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said the private sector needed to step up its efforts to convince the people that it offered the best quality of education compared to the highest international standards.
The private vs. government debate is not a new one in education, but is less applicable to the university landscape. But it has gained momentum in Karnataka now in the backdrop of as many as 13 new private universities getting the green signal from the government to establish themselves in the State. So far, there were only two in Karnataka.
Indian President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday gave a speech calling for better standards and an enhanced private-sector role in higher education, Outlook India reported.
Under constant criticism allowing large-scale private universities in the state, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Thursday said the government has decided to allow only 20 private universities to function in the state. The government has so far, already sanctioned 13 such universities, of which 11 are functional.
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.
In this context the committee has noted with concern the unregulated growth of the private sector in education, in particular private institutions that have acquired the status of deemed universities chiefly to gain degree-granting powers with a commercial and profit-making motive.
The State Government has approved the first private university in the State to be set up by the Azim Premji Foundation under an Act of the Karnataka legislature. The university will promote quality education management programmes and training for teaching staff.
Under fire over alleged corruption in granting deemed university status to private educational institutes, the ministry of human resource development (HRD), which oversees education, on Friday ordered that the fee committees of state governments fix and regulate fees charged by such institutions.
The news that hit the headlines when the Orissa Assembly was in session in July last was the resistance of the Opposition to the Education Bill that sought the approval of the House for the opening of the three new private universities, namely, the Vedanta University, the Sri Sri University and the ICFAI University which would adopt the state-of-the-art technology in imparting education to the students.
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.
While one of the focus areas of Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit 2013 was knowledge-sharing through partnership with foreign education institutes, technical colleges back home are tottering to collapse.
The state will have three private universities by the next academic session. A nod could subsequently be given to five more following a scrutiny of their applications, which is now in progress.
ADG (CB) Bijay Sharma said Debendra Behera, suspended deputy secretary of Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) in Sambalpur, had entered into a deal with private colleges to provide them question papers for money. Speaking about the modus operandi, Sharma said Behera had designed two modules to charge the private colleges.
Students taking admission to technical institutions affiliated to the Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) across the state are likely to see a change in fee structure as fee in all technical courses running in private engineering and management colleges in the state is being fixed.
While most private engineering colleges have decided to resume classes next week, government colleges are awaiting a notification from the Higher Education Department to reopen.
In a major setback to private engineering colleges operating without proper infrastructure and required faculty, the state government has ordered a "physical inspection" to ascertain the actual facilities available in the institutions.
Private engineering colleges plan to hike their hostel and mess fee by about 20 per cent this year on account of the rising prices of foodstuff like rice and cereals. Students, who pay Rs 10,000 already as hostel fee, may soon have to shell out more as a result.
In a major breakthrough in the Plus-II science question paper leak, the Crime Branch of Odisha Police have arrested heads of three privately run colleges.
Scores of students, led by the district unit of the Students Federation of India (SFI), staged a protest here on Thursday condemning the opening of private universities in the State.
I. on Large Dams, I. of Irrigation, und Power. Design and Construction Features of Selected Dams in India Central Board of Irrigation and Power, Indian National Committee for International Commission on Large Dams, (1979)