Private Universities
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
At the fag end of the year, a landmark judgment of the Supreme Court has brought into sharp focus the functioning of private and deemed universities across the country. What began as a student’s grievance has culminated in an unprecedented nationwide audit of India’s vast higher education sector.
In a sweeping directive, the apex court has ordered the Centre, all States and UTs, and the University Grants Commission to file personally sworn affidavits detailing the establishment of these institutions, their governance structures, regulatory approvals, and compliance with the statutory requirement of operating on a not-for-profit basis.While such scrutiny is long overdue, the real test will lie in whether the new year witnesses a meaningful and rigorous review of private universities, exposing systemic deficiencies rather than allowing the exercise to remain a mere procedural formality.
A central question being raised—rightly so—by a large section of scholars is whether education in India has steadily become profit-oriented. This reality can scarcely be denied, as evidenced by the growing presence of business houses establishing universities and academic institutions across the country. The more fundamental issue, however, is why such business enterprises continue to enjoy a range of concessions and regulatory leniencies while contributing little of tangible value to society. This imbalance has seldom been interrogated with the seriousness it deserves, either by governments or by civil society, resulting in the normalisation of a model that prioritises commercial gain over the public purpose of education.
It is a well-known fact that private universities charge exorbitant rates and are profit oriented. Most business houses find education a profitable and safe business to invest where risk involved is virtually nil. Moreover, in the name of being not-for-profit, they get land from state governments at highly subsidized rates. Recall, in 2017, a Supreme Court verdict invalidated engineering degrees awarded via unapproved distance mode to deemed universities and barred them from conducting such courses without clear regulatory approval.
The current order is far-reaching as it questions how private universities acquire land, appoint leadership, handle finances and whether they have credible grievance redressal mechanism. The demand for personal accountability – from chief secretaries to the UGC chairperson – signals judicial impatience with status quo. Besides, private universities, many of which operate under different central laws, are rattled.
The big question is what role the government has in the matter?Prime Minister Modi has been criticizing Macaulay for anglicising the Indian way of thinking, but the spread of quality education happened due to the efforts of the British. Both the Centre and states have not invested adequately to ensure spread of education to all parts of the country, including the rural and backward districts and allowed private parties to take over the business of education. There is no monitoring of fees being charged, whether seats are reserved for poor and marginalised sections and whether these institutions confirm to guidelines of the authorities, either by the Centre or states.
Education being on the concurrent list, both are liable to ensure the right of every individual to education. But if we are to assume that private and deemed universities give quality education, why can a farmer’s son not get the facility? These institutions are set up on huge land which now the new apex court order has asked the authorities to investigate. But it is feared that vested interests will find a way out to protect them as these institutions are expanding rapidly and making enormous profits.
It would have been better if the court had found out a civil society organisation or an academic association in each state and asked them to file a report, simultaneously with that of the state governments. In this connection, it would not be impertinent to say that most political parties and bureaucrats would tend to protect the owners of private and deemed universities, or else how can they manage so much land near metros and big towns, which surround the educational complexes?
Has there been any investigation of the process of admissions to these institutions by any of the state governments? If there is any such report, why has it not been put in the public domain? The undersigned, who was travelling to Delhi a few years back, was told by a family that they were asked to pay Rs 80 lakh extra (apart from usual fees) for their son’s admission in a private medical college in Kolkata. There are various such examples and hardly a very few private medical colleges admit students strictly on merit without any underhand charges. Thus, these institutions amass huge profits and go on expanding such institutions.
Most engineering colleges in the country are run by private entities, yet serious questions persist about the quality of teaching and academic rigour. The head of Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority, and a veteran civil engineer, who is guest faculty at several institutions once recounted an encounter that is illustrative of this malaise. When he asked a young relative why she had not pursued engineering, she replied that classes were not held on a regular basis. To the question about how the extensive syllabus was completed and exams were conducted, she explained that question papers were provided in advance and students were permitted to consult library books while writing their answers. In some cases, students were even allowed to take the question papers home and submit their written responses the following day. Notably, the institution in question forms part of a well-known group of private engineering colleges and a deemed university in West Bengal.
This is a reflection on the standards of teaching of most engineering colleges. The pay structure of most of these institutes is much below their government counterparts. As such, it has been found that retired professors and those who would retire within six months or so leave government institutions to join deemed universities. As in most other sectors, there is absolutely no monitoring and control as these institutions are owned by powerful people who are hand-in-glove with the ruling party and are only interested in making money.
This inevitably raises the larger question of how and whybusiness houses with little or no academic background are permitted to establish educational institutions. Equally important is why educationists, doctors, engineers and other domain experts are neither adequately encouraged nor financially supported to set up universities, medical colleges, engineering institutions and similar centres of learning. The discourse could instead shift towards meaningful public–private collaboration, particularly in technical and medical education. Engineering colleges, for instance, could be established with institutional support from public sector undertakings such as Coal India, MECON and NTPC, while medical colleges could be developed in partnership with premier public institutions like AIIMS and NIMHANS. Such models would better align educational expansion with academic expertise, public accountability and societal need.
At a time when there is an urgent need to upgrade educational standards and ensure transparency and fairness in admissions, the implementation of the Supreme Court’s directions is both necessary and timely—though such intervention ought to have come much earlier. The real test, however, will lie in their execution. It remains to be seen whether State governments will resist institutional and political pressures and place before the Court an honest and comprehensive account of the actual state of affairs, or whether the process will be diluted through manipulation and selective disclosure. — INFA