HYDERABAD: Despite the criticism and protests against the Telangana State Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) Act 2018, which came into force on July 15, the State government issued a notification pertaining to rules for setting up private universities (PUs) in the State, here on Tuesday. According to academicians, not unlike the bill, TSPU regulations too have multiple loopholes, are poor in specifics, generic, and will turn these universities into degree-minting institutions in the long run.
Srini Bhupalam, vice president, All India Federation of Self Financing Professional Institutions, said that since regulations are low on specifics, they could lead to political play and legal tangles in later years. “It is disappointing that the government did not mandate that PUs are required to get approvals from concerned regulatory bodies like AICTE, PCI, NCERT, Nursing, et cetera,” Bhupalam said.
He further added that doing so would have given confidence to students/parents and add another layer of scrutiny. Further, there is no mention about the off-campuses for the approved PUs. Deemed universities, for example, are allowed to have a maximum of five off-campuses. But without specific guidelines, mushrooming of PUs is possible.
RVK Rao, chairman, St Mary’s Group of Institutions, said that when the existing private varsities were not following the guidelines, bringing in new ones will only degrade the quality of education in State. “This Act is also against the draft National Education Policy, 2019, which proposes multidisciplinary educational institutions that can cater to 5,000 to 50,000 students,” he said.
Further, a PU has to show a corpus fund of `10 crore and another `30 crore in the form of fixed deposit at the time of being launched. “Both the land requirement and corpus funds are low considering we are talking about universities,” said V Balakrishna Reddy, president, Technical Institutions Employees Association.
Parents too are unhappy that the foray of PU will make education unaffordable for the poor, more so after the government has slashed the local reservation quota from 50 to 25 per cent. Nagati Narayana, of the Telangana Parents Association, has called for the amendment of GO 26 to reserve 50 per cent seats for locals and a provision for fee regulation in the PUs.
Rules against NEP ’19
The Act is also against the draft National Education Policy, 2019 which moots versatile educational institutes that can cater to 5,000 to 50,000 students, says RVK Rao, chairman, St Mary’s Group of Institutions. At least 150 to 200 acres of land is required for so many students. Under TSPU, land requirement is 20 acre under HMD & 30 acre outside it