HIGHEREDUCATION
UTTAR PRADESH, especially
the National CapitalRegionareaad-
joiningtheNationalCapital Territ-
ory,hasemerged as a hubof higher
educationalinstitutionsin thelast
decade. As manyas 27 privateuni-
versities havebeenestablishedsince
Stategovernment broughtin policy
changes to inviteprivate participa-
tionin thefield of highereducation.
Eachuniversitywasset up withits
ownAct,whichwasratified by the
StateAssembly.
The Yogi Adityanath govern-
mentrecently decidedto bringin an
umbrella legislation to control all
theseuniversities,as well as those in
thepipeline,withtheintention of
havingtightercontrolovertheiraca-
demicenvironment andadminis-
trative functioning. The Cabinet
approveda draftordinance to this
effecton June18.Theordinance,
calledtheU.P.PrivateUniversities
Ordinancewasannouncedat a press
conferencein Lucknow thesame
evening,evenbeforeit hadreceived
the Governor’s assent.
Briefing themedia,thegovern-
ment’s spokesperson, Siddharth
NathSingh,saidtheordinance was
brought to regulateprivateuniver-
sitiesin theStatein orderto secure
thefutureof students.Hesaidthe
governmenthadmadesomenew
lawsto improvethequalityof the
education in theseuniversities. Some
of these universitiesfailto givede-
greesat thelastmoment,he added.
Thenewordinancewillhavea say on
thefee structure, teachers’ appoint-
mentsandother mattersrelatingto
the management of these
universities.There are around 30-32 new
rulesfortheseprivateuniversities,
including keeping an endowment
amountof Rs.5crorewiththegov-
ernment foranylapses,Siddharth
NathSinghsaid.Besides,thenew
lawwillmakeit compulsoryfor 75
per centof the teachers to be appoin-
ted on a permanent basisandensure
thattheseappointmentsare madein
a transparentmanner.
Thenewlawhasfixedthe extent
of landthatwouldbe needed for the
settingup of universities:20 acresin
urbanareasand50 acres in rural
areas.Theordinancealsoprovides
for reservationof 10 percentof the
seats,with50 percentof fees,for
economicallyweakersections.It will
givethe Stategovernment the power
to derecognise anyuniversity thatis
foundviolatingtherulesor indul-Autonomy
under threat
TheUttarPradeshPrivateUniversitiesOrdinancetobring “uniformity”
inhighereducationmay haverunintoroughweather,buttheState
governmentproposestotablea Billthat couldunderminetheacademic
andadministrativeautonomyofprivateuniversities. BYPURNIMAS.TRIPATHI
SHARDAUNIVERSITY,oneof theprominentprivateuniversitiesin Uttar Pradesh.