Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.
Hyderabad-based Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (Icfai), which is aiming to set up a multi-disciplinary university in Orissa at an investment of Rs 150-200 crore, has identified 53 acres of land for the university.
The land has been identified close to Sum Hospital on the outskirts of the city. Out of the total land area of 53 acres, Icfai has got 11 acres of land registered for the university project.
… The university project in Orissa has been marred by delay as the Icfai Private University Bill is yet to be introduced in the state legislative assembly.
The Icfai Private University Bill would be introduced soon in the forthcoming session of the Orissa legislative assembly, claimed Noorus.
Icfai had earlier announced that its proposed university in Orissa would be functional eighteen months after the Icfai Private University Bill became an Act.
The Icfai University in Orissa would have no management quota, NRI quota or capitation fee. The university would have strength of about 1,500 students and offer courses in various disciplines like engineering, management, law, science and humanities.
Apart from Orissa, Icfai is also setting up universities in other states across the country. States like Uttaranchal, Tripura, Sikkim, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Jharkhand have passed the legislations facilitating the establishment of Icfai universities.
The proposed Icfai universities in Uttaranchal and Tripura have received the approval of the University Grants Commission (UGC) under Section 2 (f) of the UGC Act.
Other states like Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan have already issued letters of intent to Icfai for setting up universities.
The Orissa government needs to be careful with respect to ICFAI. Earlier this year there have been controversies regarding its operation in Hyderbad and in Bangalore.
October 24th, 2009
Following is from a report in Pioneer.
The committee will study the present scenario of higher education in the State in all sectors, including industries, agriculture and medical.
The committee has been asked to suggest measures and means to improve the situation and bring it at par with international standards, keeping equity, excellence and inclusion of focus areas.
It will also suggest a draft higher education policy for the State. It will also prepare two annual action plans for 2011 and 2011-12 and two five years perspective plans for the State corresponding to the 12th and 13th Five Year Plan period up to 2021-22.
Besides the core objectives, sub-committee will be formed to examine expansion and structural configuration, quality and curricular concerns, governance issues including autonomy and regulatory systems and financing of higher education.
Higher Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra said five regional consultative workshops will be held in Cuttack, Balasore, Sambalpur, Jeypore and Berhampur to elicit opinion of the intelligentsias and stake holders. After the regional workshop, a State level workshop will be held in Bhubaneswar.
The members of task force are:
- Professor Trilochan Pradhan: Founder and Retired Director, Institute of Physics and Ex-Vice-Chancellor of the Utkal University
- Prof KL Chopra (former Director, IIT Kharagpur), NBA
- Prof DP Pattnaik
- Prof DP Ray, VC, OUAT
- Prof AK Pujari, VC, Sambalpur University
- Prof Sunil Sarangi, Director, NIT, Rourkela
- Prof Chitta Baral, Arizona State University USA
- Prof Priyambada Hejmadi (former VC)
- Prof Swadhin Patnaik, Director, Institute of Mathematics
- Mr. Abani Baral
- Prof DV Raman, XIMB
- Prof LN Mishra, former Utkal University VC
- Prof Rabindra Ku Nanda, former Prof in Chemistry
- Prof Damodar Acharya, Director IIT Kharagpur
- Dr. Rajib Sahu, Resources Consultant
- Dr Achyut Samant, UGC member
- Mr. Madhusudan Padhi, IAS, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Higher Education
In addition there will be many special invitees. As per a Times of India report, they include:
- All other vice-chancellors of universities in the state (Utkal, Berhampur, NOU, FMU, Ravenshaw, BPUT, VSSUT, Culture U, KIIT U, SOA U, NLUO, CUO, Sri Jagannath U)
- Director, NISER, Prof Chandrasekhar
- Ex-state information commissioner Radhamohan
- Director, IIIT, Bhubaneswar, Prof Gopal Nayak
- Commissioner-cum-state project director, OPEPA
- Director of higher education
- Director of secondary education
- Director of elementary education
- Director of technical education and training
- Director of medical education and training
- Prof Bhagaban Prakash
- Chairman, HDF, Prof D K Ray
- Prof Dhanada Mishra
- Prof M K Mishra
- Retired principal, R D Women’s College, Prof Bijaya Mishra.
Some of my initial thoughts are at http://orissa2020.org. (A lot of the thoughts there have been shaped with discussions with many people, especially Dr. Digambara Patra.) Please write me with your suggestions and feedback at orissavision2020@gmail.com. As various people know more about the areas they have had some connections (grew up there, went to school there, etc.), thoughts about particular town/city/district/area are most welcome and will be appreciated very much.
[I received a very thoughtful feedback about the Hinjlicut area. Since I did not know the exact details about where Berhampur is growing, where Hinjlicut is growing etc., the feedback helped me to better think about that area. Such ground level feedback is most welcome and very much appreciated.]
However, please do have a state-wide perspective.
The Central government, the knowledge commission as well as the state government are serious about improving the GER from 12.4% to 30% by 2020. The Knowledge Commission has recommended that the number of universities in India go up from 350 to 1500 and that there be 50 national universities. The higher education budget has been going up from one 5 yr plan to another; so I expect that during the 12th and 13th plan there will be more central and national universities. So a lot of new universities, colleges and institutes will be established. Plus, there may be opportunity for extension campuses of exisiting institutes, similar to IISc Bangalore’s plan for an extension campus in Chitradurga, Karnataka. So if we plan properly, we can mitigate a lot of inequality and incorporate a lot of inclusiveness. Please watch out for this blog as well as the site http://orissa2020.org.
My membership in the above committee, puts certain restrictions on my public activities. In particular, it means that I can no longer publicly campaign for X or Y issue (including the ESIC issue).
October 8th, 2009
Following is from a report in IndiaEduNews.net.
The Foreign Education Providers Bill, a bill that seeks regulating the entry and operations of Foreign education providers in India, is likely to be placed before the Cabinet this week.
The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry is ready with a draft of the Bill, sources from the Ministry said.
On the Foreign Education Providers Bill, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal argued that the government alone could not finance the educational needs of the country, and said, "There is an allocation of Rs.85,000 crore for education in the 11th Five-Year Plan. But this is not enough."
"The private sector has to come. But we will have to regulate it and there will be a law for it," he said, adding that such regulations would be done by experts and academics and "there would be no political interference at all."
He said 1.6 lakh Indian students go abroad every year and spend millions of dollars besides the heavy cost to the exchequer. Sibal wondered: "A student in India may be denied admission in IIT but he gets it in MIT."
As per the Bill, Foreign education providers would be given the status of deemed universities in India. This will also permit them to grant admission and award degrees, diplomas or certificates.
The Bill also proposes to bring Foreign education providers under the administrative umbrella of the University Grants Commission (UGC), which means that the admission process and fee structure of these institutes will be regulated by the UGC.
Foreign education institutions and their branches in India would have to provide for reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), in keeping with the 93rd Constitutional Amendment Act.
Foreign education institutions are currently not allowed to offer degree courses in India, although a 100% foreign investment is allowed in the sector. However, nearly 150 foreign institutes offer courses with Indian varsities under a twinning arrangement – part of the course in India and the remaining abroad.
September 9th, 2009
Following are some excerpts from a report in Indian Express.
The HRD Ministry has unveiled a blueprint for world-class universities (WCUs) that proposes a free hand and more autonomy to varsities, exempting them from audit systems and placing them outside the UGC-style regulatory system, offering a range of scholarships and a flexible faculty recruitment process. The ministry has also announced its ‘Brain Gain’ policy to attract quality faculty from across the globe proposing to amend existing legislations to permit foreign citizens to be engaged as faculty in India.
The concept note for the universities, circulated to select academicians, proposes a strong focus on research at these varsities and government aid in the form of a corpus.
…The varsity will have just two pay bands for faculty and the varsity will be free to recruit as many faculty members as its suits them within these two pay bands.
… The ministry also announced its ‘Brain Gain’ policy on Monday which aimed at attracting best quality teachers from across the globe to work at the 14 National Universities, proposed to be set up by the Centre in the 11th Plan. To ensure that quality faculty of foreign nationality join these universities, the government may amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 which does not allow persons of Indian origin, who are citizens of another country, to be appointed to public services and posts.
The government also intends to amend the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Services) Act of 1971 to exempt national universities from the CAG’s scrutiny.
Following is some excerpts from a zeenews report.
These universities will be kept out of the purview of existing regulatory bodies in higher education in academic matters.
"The government shall ensure that the governance structure of the university shall be tuned to towards ensuring autonomy over all matter, specially academic matters, including but not limited to admissions, curriculum, research, assessment, award of degrees, selection of members of the professoiorate and the basic direction of the academic work in the university," the concept note said.
The autonomy will be at various levels — at the level of university via-a-vis government, at the level of faculty vis-a-vis the university and at the level of researcher via-a-vis the faculty.
These proposed universities will get Research Endowment Fund of an amount less than Rs 200 crore each annually.
Following the preparation of the concept note, the Ministry will make a draft bill on setting up the universities which will go to the cabinet for approval and then placed before Parliament.
The universities will have the freedom to get funding from non-governmental sources subject to condition that it will not be from dubious or unverified sources.
An research peer group, comprising eminent academicians, will evaluate the research proposals. The varsities will have the freedom to decide remuneration for research personnel.
As a major exemption, the transactions of these universities will be kept out of the purview of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
… Accountability will be ensured by the review of the academic research peer group for research work and teachers peer group for course work and teaching.
"To that end, scrutiny and accountability shall be defined by outcomes rather than processes," the note said.
The universities will be free to establish Chairs of Studies with funding through non-government endowments.
Similarly, the universities will have freedom to make appointments by invitation based on the recommendations of a standing search committee.
"Recognising that brilliance is not a factor of age of a person or years spent in research, the appointment by invitation shall not be subject to limitations of age or years of experience of the considered candidate," the concept note said.
August 19th, 2009
Following is from a report in PIB based on a Rajya Sabha response.
As on 16th July, 2009, One hundred twenty-nine institutions have been declared by the Central Government, under section 3 of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act 1956, as institutions ‘Deemed-to-be-Universities’. The State wise details are given below:
|
Sr.No.
|
Name of the State/Union Territory
|
Number of institutions declared as ‘Deemed to be Universities’ under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956
|
|
1.
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
07
|
|
2.
|
Arunachal Pradesh
|
01
|
|
3.
|
Bihar
|
02
|
|
4.
|
Gujarat
|
02
|
|
5.
|
Haryana
|
05
|
|
6.
|
Jharkhand
|
02
|
|
7.
|
Karnataka
|
15
|
|
8.
|
Kerala
|
02
|
|
9.
|
Madhya Pradesh
|
03
|
|
10.
|
Maharashtra
|
21
|
|
11.
|
Orissa
|
02
|
|
12.
|
Puducherry
|
01
|
|
13.
|
Punjab
|
03
|
|
14.
|
Rajasthan
|
08
|
|
15.
|
Tamil Nadu
|
29
|
|
16.
|
Uttarkhand
|
04
|
|
17.
|
Uttar Pradesh
|
10
|
|
18.
|
West Bengal
|
01
|
|
19.
|
New Delhi
|
11
|
Institutions ‘Deemed to be Universities’ are only teaching institutions, and they are not permitted to affiliate any college or institution.
Institutions ‘deemed-to-be-universities’ have expanded the base of higher education in the country and are offering education and research facilities in various disciplines such as Medical Education, Physical Education, Fisheries Education, Languages, Social Sciences, Population Sciences, Dairy Research, Forest Research, Armament Technology, Maritime Education, Yoga, Music and Information Technology, etc
This information was given by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development Smt. D. Purandeswari, in a written reply to a question, in the Rajya Sabha today.
July 28th, 2009
Various reports (Economic Times,PTI) mention that Orissa government has introduced bills for three private universities. They are: Vedanta University, Sri Sri University and ICFAI University.
In this context it should be noted that the UGC currently (as of June 2009) recognizes 42 such private state universities in India. None of them are in Orissa. This list of 42 universities obtained from the UGC site http://www.ugc.ac.in/notices/updatedpriuniver.pdf is as follows:
CHHATTISGARH
1. Dr. C.V. Raman University, Kargi Road, Kota, Bilaspur.
2. MATS University, Arang Kharora Highway, Gram Panchayat: Gullu, Village: Gullu, Tehsil : Arang, District: Raipur.
GUJARAT
3. Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gandhinagar, Post Box No. 4, Gandhinagar-382 007.
4. Ganpat University, Ganpat Vidyanagar, Mehsana, Goazaria Highway, District Mehsana – 382 711
5. Kadi Sarva Vishwavidyalaya, Sarva Vidyalaya Campus, Sector 15/23, Gandhinagar.
6. Nirma University of Science & Technology, Sarkhej, Gandhinagar Highway, Village- Chharodi, Ahmedabad.
7. Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, At Raisan, Dist. Gandhinagar – 382 009.
HIMACHAL PRADESH
8. Chitkara University, HIMUDA Education Hub, Kallujhanda (Barotiwala), Distt. Solan, – 174103 Himachal Pradesh
9. Jaypee University of Information Technology, District-Solan-173 215.
MEGHALYA
10. Martin Luther Christian University, KIPA Conference Centre, Central Ward, Shillong – 793 001.
11. Techno Global University, Anita Mension Bishnupur, Lawsohtun Road, Shillong – 793004.
MIZORAM
12. The Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India University, Salem Veng, Chaltlang, Aizawal – 798 012.
NAGALAND
13. The Global Open University, Wokha – 797 111.
PUNJAB
14. Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar –Ludhiana, G. T. Road, Near Chehru Railway Bridge, Phagwara, District – Kapurthala – 144 002.
RAJASTHAN
15. Bhagwant University, Post Box No. 87, Sikar Road, Ajmer – 305 001.
16. Jagannath University, Village-Rampura, Tehsil-Chaksu, Jaipur.
17. Jaipur National University, Jagatpura, Jaipur.
18. Jyoti Vidyapeeth Women’s University, Vedant Gyan Valley Village, Jharna Matpala Jabner, Link Road NH-8, Jaipur.
19. Mewar University, Chittorgarh.
20. NIMS University, Shobha Nagar, Jaipur – 303 001.
21. Sir Padmapat Singhania University, Pacheribari, Jhunjhunu.
22. Singhania University, Pacheribari, Jhunjunu.
23. Suresh Gyan Vihar University, Mahal Jagatpura, Jaipur.
24. Jodhpur National University, Narnadi Jhanwar Road , Jodhpur -342001 ,Rajasthan.
25. Amity University, Rajasthan NH-11C,Kant Kalwar, Jaipur- 303002
SIKKIM
26. Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management University, Jorethang.
27. Sikkim- Manipal University of Health, Medical & Technological Sciences, Gangtok-737 101.
TRIPURA
28. Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI), Agartala – 799001.
UTTAR PRADESH
29. Amity University, NOIDA, (UP)
30. Integral University, Kursi Road, Lucknow-226 026.
31. Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Handicapped University, Chitrakoot Dham-210 204.
32. Mangalayatan University, Aligarh.
33. Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, Rampur.
34. Sharda University, Gautam Budh Nagar, U.P.
35. Swami Vivekanand Subharti University, Delhi-Haridwar Byepass Road, Meerut.
36. Teerthanker Mahaveer Univesity, Delhi Road, Moradabad.
UTTRAKHAND
37. Dev Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya, Gayatrikunj, Shantikunj, Hardwar-249 411.
38. Doon University, Campus Office, 388/2, Indira Nagar, Dehradoon.
39. Himgiri Nabh Vishwavidyalaya (University in the Sky), Dehradun.
40. Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI), C-1/103, Indira Nagar, Dehradun-248 006.
41. University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Building No. 7, Street No. 1, Vasant Vihar Enclave, Dehradun-284 006.
42. University of Patanjali, Patanjali Yogpeeth, Haridwar.
In that document, after giving the list, the notice says the following:
These universities are competent to award degrees as specified by UGC under Section 22 of the UGC Act and with the approval of the statutory councils, wherever required through their main campus. Wherever the approval of the statutory council is not a pre-requisite to start a programme, the universities are required to maintain the minimum standards regarding academic and physical infrastructure as laid down by the concerned statutory council.
It is also informed that private universities cannot affiliate an institution/college. They cannot establish off campus centre(s) beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the concerned State. However, they can establish off-campus centre(s) within the concerned State after their existence of five years and with the prior approval of the University Grants Commission. So far, UGC has not approved any off campus centre(s) of any Private University.
Approval letters for course under distance mode should clearly state that the course has been approved by the Joint Committee UGC, AICTE and DEC and the approval letter should be jointly signed by Secretary UGC , Member Secretary, AICTE and Director, DEC as per the provision laid down under clause 9 of the MOU signed by UGC, AICTE and DEC.
Students/Public at large are advised to go through this website carefully before taking admission in any of the above State Private Universities and report the matter to Secretary, UGC on finding any violation of the above provisions.
Interestingly, none of the above are in the southern states (Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala) or Maharastra which took a huge lead in establishing engineering colleges.
July 25th, 2009
Update2: The frontline article "University Business" explains why the Yahspal Committee is harsh on the deemed universities and on UGC.
Update: Apparently Prof. Kaushik Basu of Cornell University has issued a dissenting note to this report. Hindu reports on this. Business Standard interviews Prof. Basu.Following are some excerpts.
First, when it comes to higher education, we need to give up our licensing mentality and allow many more new colleges, deemed universities and universities to come up. We tried industrial licensing to manage our manufacturing sector and almost killed it.
I completely agree with the above. Prof. Yashpal is unnecessarily harsh on the deemed universities. I also agree with the following:
If regulatory bodies like the UGC & AICTE are replaced by a supra body (as suggested by the National Knowledge Commission too), do you believe it will still hinder granting autonomy to colleges and universities?
In itself this means very little. Everything will depend on how we specify the functions of this supra body. At one level this can be nothing but a change of names. At another, by creating such a powerful body, we can risk hurting the autonomy of colleges and universities. This we must guard against.
More excerpts from Prof. Basu’s dissent note is reported in another Business Standard article. Following is one of them.
First, the main report speaks about the need for greater autonomy for colleges and universities. However, one stumbling block for this objective is the huge power vested in the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). There is need for these organisations to divest themselves of some of this power. Just as India gave up on industrial licensing in the early nineties (and thereby unleashed growth), the reformed UGC and AICTE should give up on the licensing of higher education
I was able to find the final report of Yashpal Committee in the web. A local copy of it is here. There are a lot of good points in the committee report. But I do have some disagreement and discomfort with the report. Here are some of the points where I am not comfortable with what the committee writes in its report.
- I find that the committee discussions and recommendations regarding Deemed Universities to be unnecessarily harsh. The committee also does not talk much about private universities and the only place it does (page 39), it badmouths them. It criticizes private institutions a lot. Most of the criticisms are valid. But considering the need of the country the tone should have been more on how to make them better rather than making them out to be evil. The only way India can have the number of universities that it wants to have in the next 5-10 years is through private participation and that includes deemed universities and private universities. My suggestion would be to have a SEBI like regulatory agency that oversees the financial aspects of the private educational institutions (including priavte universities). The regulations should require audited financial statements made available in the web. (The private universities in the US have their financial statements available in the web. Stanford’s is here.) The regulation should stipulate that all the fees should be mentioned upfront in the institution’s webpage and there should be a hotline to complain regarding any transactions beyond that is mentioned in those pages.
- The committee’s recommendation of eliminating various regulating agencies and creating a new body from scratch is not well developed. In the US there are different accreditation agencies for different educational fields. The current problem is with how the AICTE, MCI, etc. members are selected and how they operate rather than with their existence. In the proposed model, even if there is a single body, there will be still a need for different sub-bodies for accrediting different type of institutions.
- The committee also criticizes the speciality institutes like IIT and IIMs and recommends that they broaden their scope. Although broadening IITs and IIMs is a good idea, I think the committee misses an important point. Consider the National Law Schools. Prior to their establishment there were law schools in various universities. But the top students rarely thought of going to law school. It was considered an add-on degree after one does his/her Bachelors or Masters. The national law schools did two things that changed the scenario. (i) They created a brand name and (ii) They created law focused bachelors programs right after +2. So the idea behind some specialized branded institutions should be aplauded rather than criticized. Similarly consider the IISERs/NISER. By their dedicated focus on science research they are already helping in reviving interest in science among students out of high school. India being a vast country with a need for large number of institutions it is a good idea to have some branded discipline focussed institutions that will help create the interest of students on those areas. This interest will indirectly benefit the universities which have comprehensive programs in various fields. Thus I would recommend creation of Indian Institutes of Social Sciences and/or Indian Institutes of Liberal Arts with programs for students out of high school. Such a brand would attract top students out of high school to pursue liberal arts. We do need top quality students out of high school pursuing social science and liberal arts topics such as Anthropology, Economics, Psychology, Literature, etc. By having branded institutions in those fields it will suggest to interested students and their parents that these fields are worth pursuing. However, as the Yashpal committee suggested after a certain brand is established (like IITs and IIMs) they should broaden to other disciplines; but, IMHO, only after the brand is established.
June 27th, 2009
