deemed universitites

Deemed Universities – future of the role of private investors in higher education

A fortnight has passed since the Union HRD Ministry decided to crack the whip on erring private deemed universities, The flush of emotions on all sides is ebbing away and hence it’s time to raise a few pertinent points that an unbiased audience will have.

Of course, this is not to defend any erring institution. Any educational entrepreneur who fails to render quality education to students deserves little mercy from the monitoring and enforcing organizations. In fact, everyone needs to support the Union government’s affidavit before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India that such institutions be shut down and their students relocated.

But only by due process of law.

If enforcers of the statutes need to act against those who transgress the law, and brazenly at that, it is important that the enforcers, act scrupulously by the law which they are charged with enforcing.

Look at the sequence of events in the last 8 – 10 years: private colleges, mostly those money power and political muscle have demanded and got the deemed universities. Some of them have done so due to sheer dint of hard work and the quality systems they have set in place over the years.

Over the years, a due statutory process necessary to evaluate an institution’s claim to become a deemed university has been diluted. In fact, a few years ago, the head of an institution was apprehended with a load of cash in an airport, which was allegedly to be used to bribe people to into getting university status for his college. That he still got such a status is another story!

Now for the larger questions that rise in the present situation:

What has the Union government or the P.N. Tandon committee planned to ensure that someone in the UGC or the Union government assumes full responsibility for granting University status to sub=standard institutions?

Will there be a full scale investigation in how these institution got the status and what will be penalty that should be levied on such erring officials?

Why are the Union HRD Minister and the P N Tandon committee speaking in two voices? The Union Minister Mr. Kapil Sibal is on record asking “why should we have deemed universities?” However, the Tandon committee has reportedly stated that there was nothing wrong with the concept of deemed universities if deserving institutons attain such a status by dint of merit. Who will have the final say on this?

The National Knowledge Commission and even leading academics like Prof. V.C Kulandaiswamy have said India needs another 1500 universities so that academic leadership, high end research and curriculum planning will rest with the Universities and not be spread among the 18,000 affiliated colleges in the country. It is very difficult to imagine a situation where the government alone will create such a large number of universities in the short term. The only other way would be identify the top 10 per cent of the colleges in the country and grant them university status so that they can assume the responsibility of involving in high quality research.

Private enterprise has to necessarily play a significant role in this. Considering the existing legal lacunae that has led to the deemed university fiasco, it is time the government clearly charts out a path for private investment in higher education.

A legal framework that sets rigorous standards for educational delivery and high quality research and academic activity is immediately needed. And the framework would clearly set out a legal course of action for anyone who tries to misuse the statute, dilute standards or seeks to gain university status by an act of con.

Finally, such a legal framework should include the same standards of quality in governance, educational delivery and research excellence for government run institutions too.