Did Telangana Governor get her facts wrong?

Hyderabad: Ponder this. The All India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE) 2019-20 report, brought out by the union Ministry of Education, says the number of private universities in country increased from 276 in 2015-16 to 407 in 2019-20. These are apart from over 130 private universities likely to be established in different States. Consider this […]

Hyderabad: Ponder this. The All India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE) 2019-20 report, brought out by the union Ministry of Education, says the number of private universities in country increased from 276 in 2015-16 to 407 in 2019-20. These are apart from over 130 private universities likely to be established in different States.

Consider this too. The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat passed the Gujarat Private Universities Amendment Bill, 2022 in March this year, facilitating establishment of 11 new private universities in the State. According to Gujarat Education Minister Jitu Vaghani, there were 11 universities in Gujarat in 2002, which has now increased to 91 universities, including 52 private universities.

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And then, add this. Telangana, as of now, has only five private universities.

Still, Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, in her politically charged press conference at Raj Bhavan the other day, accuses the Telangana government of commercializing education through promotion of private universities.

“Education is not for sale. What is the need to introduce so many private universities?” she asked.

In fact, the Governor also forgot that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself had invited the private sector to enter the field of education in a ‘big way’, especially for medical education, asking States to frame ‘good policies’ for land allotment for such endeavours. That was in February this year. Much earlier, Modi, at the centenary celebrations of the Patna University in 2017, had announced an assistance of Rs.10,000 crore to 10 private universities and an equal number of government ones for a period of five years. “All these universities have to do is to demonstrate their potential to become world class,” he had said.

The Governor also forgot that much before Telangana, many other States, including BJP-ruled States had formulated their own policies for private universities and were encouraging such initiatives.

Generally, education institutions are categorized into State public university, State private university, deemed private university, deemed public university, central university and institute of national importance.

Private Universities are established by the Act of the State Legislature concerned. The University Grants Commission (UGC) includes their name in the list of Universities under Section 2(f) of UGC Act, 1956 on receipt of the respective State Act.

Statutory Universities can award degrees specified under Section 22 of UGC Act, 1956, with due approval of their competent council(s) and Statutory Councils, wherever required and in accordance with the Regulations notified by the UGC, from time to time. In short, it is with approval of the UGC, as per rules and regulations, that any State allows private universities.

The Governor also forgot to question the Gujarat government, which passed the Bill to allow 11 private universities, just seven months ago. These include one particular institution named Adani University in Ahmedabad, for which the Gujarat Assembly unanimously passed a bill seeking establishment of the university under the Gujarat State Private Universities Act. The other universities were Gandhinagar University, Gandhinagar, SKIPS University, Gandhinagar, Swaminarayan University, Gandhinagar, Dr. Subhash University, Junagadh, Nobel University, Junagadh, Trans Stadia University, Ahmedabad, MK University, Patan, Vidhyadeep University, Surat, Maganbhai Adenwala Mahagujarat University, Kheda and the Lok Bharathi University for Rural Innovation, Bhavnagar.