RAIPUR: In an indictment of higher education standards across Chhattisgarh, nearly a third of the private universities operating in the state have failed to enroll even 1,000 students—prompting Governor Ramen Deka to sound the alarm over institutions functioning as universities in name only.
The grim reality surfaced during a high-level review meeting chaired by the Governor at Lok Bhavan with vice-chancellors of around 20 private universities. Out of these, roughly half a dozen institutions reported student strengths below the 1,000 mark. The revelation left the Governor visibly taken aback, prompting him to issue a direct mandate: every university must immediately work to achieve a baseline enrolment of at least 1,000 students or face hard questions about their institutional viability.
The disclosure has triggered fierce blowback from educationists and policy experts, who argue that running a university with student numbers smaller than an average higher secondary school makes a mockery of higher education accreditation.
"If this is their enrolment strength, these institutions would be better off functioning as colleges rather than masquerading as full-fledged universities," an education analyst remarked, pointing out that scale and multidisciplinary vibrancy are foundational to university status.
The issue directly confronts the national benchmarks laid down under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which envisions large, multidisciplinary higher education institutions rather than fragmented, micro-campuses.
"The Governor has raised a very pertinent issue, because sheer student volume—alongside research output—is a primary differentiator between a standalone college and a university," said noted academician Dr. Jawahar Surisetti, who attended the Lok Bhavan meeting. "Under NEP 2020, the goal is to transform colleges with over 3,000 students into autonomous degree-granting universities. Yet here, institutions that already carry the university tag cannot even manage a third of that number,” he added.
There are 20 private and six government universities in Chhattisgarh.
The dismal head-counts underline a deeper crisis in Chhattisgarh’s private higher education landscape: an unchecked proliferation of redundant, low-demand degree programs that fail to draw applicants. Coupled with Governor Deka's order to run expert-led audits on questionable Ph.D. registrations and shutter unviable courses, the spotlight is now firmly on the state’s regulatory apparatus. For universities operating with a fraction of the required students, the Governor's 1,000-student threshold is not just a target—it is an ultimatum.
