Private higher education is here to stay

Prasoon Pant / Jul 5, 2004, 13:23 IST

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Founder president, Amity Group, Ashok K Chauhan talks to Prasoon Pant on the important role of entrepreneurship in learning.

Private higher education is here to stay

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">The Amity Group is at the forefront of private education with over 20,000 students and 22 centres across the country. The founder president of the group, Ashok K Chauhan is upbeat too about private education and says that it''s being increasingly accepted and sought-after by students and parents alike. What is the reason for a sudden spurt in the establishment of private universities across the country? We have 18 central, 197 state and 89 deemed universities, out of which 15-20 are private deemed ones.The status of private education in the country is such that some people have got into it purely with the intent of `doing business'', some for prestige and only a few have forayed into it out of love for education. And for these people, it becomes cumbersome to be under the constant â€˜care'' of regulatory bodies such as the AICTE, MCI, NCTE and so forth. These bodies, in the past have put a straitjacket of rules and regulations on private institutions, related to accreditions, conduct of programmes among others. The result is that many private institutions started thinking on the lines of getting the university status, through the State Acts, in certain states. And being a university gave these institutions full control to run their programmes without any interference from these agencies. What should be the ideal way of going about establishing these private universities, considering that many of them are mired in controversy? As these private universities come under the purview of the state governments - like Chattisgarh and Uttranchal, the governments of these states must have proper guidelines in place for the conduct of such universities. For instance, in Chattisgarh, earlier there was virtually no ''financial endowment'' policy for setting up such universities, but now the rules have been amended and a private institution seeking university status has to furnish details of having 15-acre land, if within the municipal limits of the city at Raipur or 25-acre land if located outside this limit. Additionally, an ''endowment'' sum of Rs 2 crore is demanded. Although, this is a welcome step to keep out the unscrupulous elements, I feel that this limit should be raised to Rs 5 crore or even to Rs 10 crore and the requisition for land area should be raised to 25-acre within the city limits. Besides, there should be specific guidelines on the ''quality of education'' and ''monitoring process''. Only those persons should be allowed to set up a university, who besides financial resources and infrastructure have the proper vision, faculty and the right experience in the field of education. What kind of future do you see for private education in the country? It definitely has a very bright future. This again, as the government has failed in its fundamental duty of providing education to the masses. The day of private education has arrived and is endorsed by the student community as well. No doubt, the future belongs to private education and we will see many more private universities coming up in the days to come. Where does Amity stand in all this? We are the biggest private education providers in India at the moment and areexpanding day by day. Our university started in 2002 and today we are certified as an ISO 9002 and ISO 14001- hallmarks of quality. We have registered 900 courses, and in three to four years will be offering a gamut of courses through our different centres. These courses can be pursued through distance learning too, for which we have adequate provision for ''contact classes'' at our 22 centres, which will go up to 50 by the next year. We offer courses in IT, engineering, management, biotech, journalism, insurance and some niche courses like forensic science and nanotechnology.</div> </div>

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