Changing face of higher education on private campuses

Amid mistrust of established institutions, students are quitting mid-course and taking chances with private universities such as Shiv Nadar University, Ashoka University and OP Jindal Global University, which have recently come up in the National Capital Region, writes Sahil Makkar for Business Standard.

Sector experts say Shiv Nadar University has managed to create a niche for itself with its engineering courses, while Ashoka is well regarded for its liberal arts course, something new to India. OP Jindal Global University has made a mark with its law school, increasingly popular among children of top lawyers. These new universities aspire to be India's answer to Harvard or Columbia in the next 10 to 15 years, and attribute their current success to research-based education rather than only classroom training. Students are given a choice to study electives which are entirely different from their course curriculum.

What sets them apart from other centres of excellence in the government's domain is less administrative control and more autonomy to the institutes. For instance, the prestigious Nalanda University is grappling with financial and administrative issues. Private universities, on the other hand, enjoy greater flexibility in designing courses.
Full report on the Business Standard site