India's newly re-elected Congress Party-led government was rocked by a higher education scandal. The new Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal was been forced to take action after a meeting with University Grants Commission officials. He has shelved all pending requests for 'deemed university status'.

Universities in India have traditionally only been established by legislation but the newer 'deemed university status' can be awarded by the central government to institutions that meet prescribed standards. Critics claim that subjective criteria could be warped to grant this status to private institutions as payback for political favours.

A central government committee is now checking faculty qualifications, the quality of institutional infrastructure and "sanctity of the admission process" for enrolments in the officially recognised universities - some of which are actually of a high quality - before reporting within three months.

This is seen as the first step by Sibal in reforming the nation's higher education sector. The plans for reform have been energised by a television sting operation that showed aspiring students in two Chennai-based private medical colleges with deemed university status being charged US$50,000-$100,000 as bribes to secure entry.

Professor Yashpal, a former chair of the grants commission, told University World News that many management and engineering institutions, which included deemed universities, had "bad standards of education and they also fleece students".

In February, a Yashpal-led committee established to advise the UGC on 'renovation and rejuvenation of higher education', recommended scrapping of the 'deemed-to-be-university' status altogether. The problem lies in the acute shortage of university enrolment opportunities that has made it much tougher for students to get into government-funded medical or engineering colleges.

Yashpal said 16 new government-legislated universities were to be established but a huge gap remained between demand and supply. "The trouble is that some of those institutions are not as good as they could be," he said.

Sibal has also promised to take steps to overcome the existing "judicial constraints" on encouraging private investment in education. Under the regulations, profits made from an educational institution must be reinvested which discourages private investors.

The Minister also announced that a bill regulating foreign universities, which has been pending following the securing of Cabinet approval in February 2007, will go before the parliament. The bill seeks to regulate the entry, operation and maintenance of foreign education providers in India.

Under the act, all foreign universities with bases in India would have the status of deemed universities which would bring them under the grants commission regulations. In return, a foreign university would have to maintain a fund of more than US$2 million for the Indian offshoot and provide a certificate of validation from their embassy or high commission in India.

Comment:

The so-called "Deemed-to-be-universities" are family fiefdoms.The positions of chancellor, pro-chancellor and vice-chancellor are occupied by the promoter''s family members whose education ranges from high school failed to a correspondence degree acquired through dubious means. Some have acquired honorary doctorates from American universities for a price.

The quality of the degrees awarded by the deemed universities are abysmally low. Some people suggest that there should be an institutional mechanism to set right the fraud. This may not work in a corrupt social system as such things have miserably failed in other places. People are watching the outcome of the action to be taken by the government on the recommendations of Professor Yashpal's committee. If the government. fails in this effort, its claim of revamping the system will turn out to be a farce of the worst order. Let us wait and see!

Professor T.K.Raja
India

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