LAW MANTRA

THINK BEYOND OTHERS

(National Monthly Journal, I.S.S.N 23216417)

MUSHROOMING TYPE UNIVERSITIES IN INDIA WHETHER IT AFFECT QUALITY OF EDUCATION SYSTEM OF INDIAN CULTURE ORBASIC NORMS OR NOT?1

Introduction: UNDER THE Indian Constitution, a university can be established either by Parliament or a State Legislature. There is also a provision for granting deemed-to-be-university status for certain institutions and the procedure for that is laid down in the UGC Act. There is a third category, wherein an institution can have the status of an institute of national importance the IITs and the IIMs come under this. But Chhattisgarh, one of the youngest States, has bypassed all established procedures.

Last year, it passed, without consulting the UGC, a Bill called "The Chhattisgarh Niji Kshetra Vishwavidyalaya (Sthapana Aur Viniyaman) Adhiniyan, 2002. Should the Governor not have referred it to the UGC before giving his assent? In a similar situation, this is precisely what the Governor of Madhya Pradesh did. This particular Act has a clause for which there is no precedent. Under Section 5, the State Government may, by notification in the gazette, establish "a University by such name and with such jurisdiction and location of campus as may be specified therein." For the first time, a university may be set up through a gazette notification. In less than a year, 18 of them have been established, for reasons that might not bear too close a scrutiny. The only two qualifying conditions laid down before a university is notified are (a) "the desirability to establish a University;" (b) "recognition or authorisation as may be required under any other law for the time being in force to conduct the syllabus and to grant degrees or diplomas or awards." The next clause in that very Section is that every notification issued under sub section (1) shall be laid on the table of the Legislative Assembly. If, by following this procedure, 18 universities have been established in less than a year, it should not be difficult to visualise how many more might be set up. The only statutory condition laid down is
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Annu Bhal ,Assistant Professor Janhit Law College,Greater Noida

that a university established under sub-section (1) of Section 5 may, with the prior approval of the State Government, affiliate any college or other institution or set up more than one campus.

In the Act, under the heading "the objects of the university," 11 have been enumerated. Each lists powers which can be exercised by the university. There is not a word about the objectives. In Section 3.7, it is stated that the university "may establish main campus in Chhattisgarh and have study centres at different places in India and other countries." But, what is not given is the definition of "study centre." Study centres are generally established by open universities as centres where students make use of the library and electronic facilities and interact with teachers who have expertise in different fields of study. As a point of comparison, the definition given in the Indira Gandhi National Open University Act may be reproduced here: "Study centre means a centre established, maintained or recognised by the university for the purpose of admitting, counselling or for rendering any other assistance required by the students." Had such a definition been given, the use of the words "study centres" in the 7th clause of Section 3 would have come in the way of setting up such centres at different places in India and other countries. Clearly, what the Chhattisgarh Act set out to do was facilitate the setting up of, among other things, an open university (or universities) anywhere in India or elsewhere. During the last few years, some of the other open universities have gone about setting up such centres in as many as 100 places in the country. More than a year ago, the UGC had sent out a circular against such practices as they diluted the whole system of distance education in the country. Following the UGC initiative, IGNOU also issued a similar circular. Were one to ask if any one of these universities responded in positive terms or acted upon the caution given, the answer is `no'. Did these two august bodies follow up that matter further? Again, the answer would be `no'.\ These and various other developments prompt the question: What is the Ministry of Human Resource Development doing to sort out this mess, which has arisen partly from the fact that there is an overlap of powers between the UGC and the IGNOU? The minimum that the Ministry could have done was to convene a meeting of these bodies and settle the issue of their jurisdiction. There is also another question. What is the Ministry doing in regard to the Act passed by Chhattisgarh? Setting up universities through gazette notifications is not consistent with the existing practice. Whether it is consistent with the Constitution requires examination. All education, including university education, is a State subject. Except through the agency of the various professional councils, the Centre does not have any direct power over the universities set up by different States.

The Centre, however, has the power to coordinate and maintain standards. It is in keeping with that power that the UGC and over a dozen professional councils have been set up. So far, the HRD Ministry has not created a mechanism for coordination among these various councils. In 1995, the Private Universities Bill was moved in Parliament. The Bill is still pending. The need for such a piece of legislation is both obvious and urgent. Had it been called the SelfFinancing Universities Bill, it would have been easier to pass. Education makes the foundation of any person .It helps in building the personality of any human being. Nowadays the education system becomes a major commercial sector in market. There are lots of colleges and universities opened day by day offer UG and PG programmes in various streams, also witnessed a huge decline in the standards of education and also increased the number of unemployed graduates. Mushroom growth fake universities in different part of India also challenge the moral questions of the system. There are number of colleges which are fake and not recognized or genuine. Every year thousands of students take admission in different universities all over the country. Education in India is offered in the following categories of institutions: Institutions of national importance, University of departments, Colleges affiliated to universities, Non university autonomous institutions, Distance/ correspondence based institutions and Unaffiliated Institutions

At the top are reputed institutions of national importance and some universities departments, which have maintained high quality in their teaching and research. The second rung departments are those started by industrial houses, private institutes and state-level education institutes like Mudra Institutes of Communications, Symbiosis, and so on, which offer quality management education at par with those offered by reputed institutes. These come under the category of non-university autonomous institutions The third level institutes are the university departments and Open Universities, which provide management education through correspondence, distance and part-time. The number of private institutes has increased in the country impressively whereas the number of public institutions-both government and aided institutions -has only marginally. Nearly 30% enrollment happens in the private unaided institutions, which do not receive any grants from the government. Generally when a student took admission in a college oftenally he dont know whether that college is recognized or university is approved through norms of University Grant

Commission.UGC in India has the responsibility to maintain standards of higher education in the country. This is creating issue for students, parents and even for UGC. If you are a student or a parent of one, your concern should be, which university you should trust or which one is genuine. For a better future higher studies are crucial, therefore choosing a university becomes important automatically. Sometime the problem become more serious because even if a university gets approval from UGC(University Grant Commission) but it is not mandatory that whatever course they are offering for various subjects is also approved. The universities which are not established under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956 are fake universities. Under this category, institutes do not have authority to confer/grant degree to students. They are trying to cheat the students sand later it creates a major problem in the growth of their career. As per the report of UGC which released on 27.12.2013 total number of approved universities in India is 656 out of which 311 are State Universities, Deemed to be Universities are 129, Central Universities are 45 and 171 are Private Universities and 21 universities considered as fake universities. Although the courses offered these fake institutions do not have any validity in the eyes of UGC, but their job oriented training and short duration makes them highly attractive for young one. The only grant giving agency in India is UGC who has the responsibilities to provide fund and to coordinate, determine and maintain the standards of higher education institutes. UGC approval will ensure that the institution maintains basic standard of teaching, examination and research and government will take measures for the improvement of university. As per in terms of total number of students, Indian higher education and research sector is the third largest sector in the world. In previous years the number of private institutes has increased in the country whereas the number of public institutions both government and aided institution, has increased but they are less in number as compare to private institute. About 30% enrollment happens in the private unaided institutions, which do not receive any grant from the government. But, with the increase count of institutes in the country the same is compromising, at the cost of quality output of students for every passing year. The numbers of institutions open day by day are also known as Degree Mills. With the opening of deemed universities the students have faced problems. Though they get their certified degree courses but as these universities are not recognized they have to face the problems later on. The trend of having foreign collaboration has also been increasing in recent past years. In fact, a stage has been already reached where anyone aspiring to get BE/ B Tech/MBA/PGDM degree can now get entry easily in one or other school somewhere in India or even in foreign Universities and Institutes. Many of them had lack of inclination towards management or engineering but still wanted to do an MBA, simply because they want to get a degree and fancy

designation and they are not concerned with the quality of education. These students are equally clueless so as to what kind of job they would want to take up after completing their studies. Yashpal Committee was constituted to give its report on conditions of higher education in country. It concerned with the mushrooming of higher educational institutions in India. It observed that deemed university status has been given without concerning quality and necessity. It expressed great worry about monetization on education. In report it is also mentioned that, the very little coordination among the statutory bodies has led to very embarrassing situations in which we find two regulatory agencies (UGC and AICTE) at loggerheads and fighting legal cases against each other. They had failed to work together and never seemed to agree with each others decision anyway.

The report also recommends that the granting of deemed university status should be put on hold till unambiguous guidelines are evolved. The shops that had opened up like family business will be rooted out now. The creation of one ruling voice would drown out the chaos of cries created by the multiplicity The idea of unifying the fragmented governance into one governing agency is excellent. In a landmark judgment passed on 25 April 2013, the Supreme Court of India has held that vis-vis universities, the All India Council for Technical Education(AICTE) has only an advisory role and cannot issue any sanctions on universities and colleges affiliated to universities. Effect of mushrooming of universities like in this manner creates a savior side effect on the quality of education. Quality will be restored when students are spread out in many different fields that education has to offer. However, till that time the quality of pass outs from various university schools and private autonomous colleges will still remain serious matter of national concern, especially with the large pool of qualified but incompetent professionals in the market. Unemployment is one concern and the other problem which creates with the development of mushrooming university is that after spending two or more years in studies when student realize about the affiliation of course and s which he/she obtains from that university has no value at all in the market then he become mentally stressed and he moves towards depression it affects not only the student but his entire family who spent a lot of money on the studies for making the bright future of their children.

Students who hail from rural and filed areas of the country to metros and other cities for higher education should be alert, as many fake universities exist. People who move outside their native states are trapped by the fraud and fake universities/colleges easily. For convenience of

them there are so many sites who list both fake and genuine universities and much other relevant information for them. A decade and a half ago India was a developing country with a very low literacy rate, we had a acute shortage of skilled and trained professionals but now even though the literacy rate has gone up, even by Indian standards we still have a acute shortage of ably skilled individuals. Indian culture also gets affected by these kind of milling machines in the education system. Person who will not get employment after completing his studies naturally destructed and sometime he may create problem for the society. Problems which occur due to the mushrooming of universities are: unemployment, playing with the future of students, losing the value of technical education. Future of our country. There is a huge gap between the elite institutions and colleges in villages, towns and even in cities. The problem goes deeper than just the lack of higher educational institutions in India. According to NOVONOUS rather than increasing the number of institutes there is a necessity of quality institutes for engineering and management courses. Higher degree with regard to engineering and MBA shouldnt be made so easy that a student is not allowed to think about options beyond those. Moreover the governing councils like UGC and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) must stop providing grants to any new applying for MBA/Engineering course approvals. Also the authorities must conduct a survey and inspection on the existing institutes/colleges providing technical education to know the quality of students and institutes status. The history of these institutes applying for permission set up such a course should be also considered before approval. An important facet of educational reforms should be the availability of options with a student to pursue the subject of his or her choice with an open mind. Its high time we stop talking about higher education only in terms of engineering, medical and management. Higher education needs to mass communication, media animation, incorporate arts, humanities fine arts, Actarial Science as well. Till this kind of expansion is not given to the realm of higher education, we can only substandard products from even high quality institutions. This option should not only be based on availability of jobs but more importantly on the applicants/students aptitude. Quality will be restored when students were spread out in many different fields that education has to offer. However, till that time quality of pass outs from various university schools and private autonomous colleges will remain a serious.

India has all the potential to become a regional hub therefore; an increasing number of students from our neighboring country will choose the country as their preferred destination for education.Hence,we should emphasis on quality, rather than quantity, foreign universities

could leverage the opportunity of offering contextualize courses as Indian universities and institutions are lacking in this particular domain and students would be also getting an international exposure. We need to inspect and monitor the quality of education provided and modify them if need be. We cannot reject the need of private institutions but should take great care and circumspection in this area. Developing of education degree in milling machines will decrease the value of education for coming generations.

"Knowledge imparts moral values and the methods to increase the strength of mind which leads to improvement of character. He is wise who knows the sources of knowledge-who knows who has written and where it is to be found- A.A.Hodge

By:- Annu Bhal, Assistant Professor, Janhit Law College,Greater Noida