CHENNAI : In a first, Tamil Nadu is going to have two private universities, one by the SSN group of institutions and the other by Sai group of institutions. Two separate bills providing for establishment of the private universities were adopted by the Assembly through voice vote on Thursday amid the DMK’s objections to the move which it claimed would affect the quality of education.Minister for Higher Education KP Anbazhagan moved one bill to ‘establish and incorporate in the State of Tamil Nadu a university of unitary nature in the private sector by SSN Trust’.
Another bill provided for establishing a private university by Sai Education, Medical, Research and Charitable Trust.Opposing the two bills, DMK MLAs K Ponmudi and S Regupathy raised objections to allowing private educational firms to establish universities as it would affect the quality of higher education.
Ponmudi, a former education minister, alleged that the bill did not have any provision for the government to have control over the universities. He lamented that the private university bill allows the institutions concerned to appoint the Chancellor on their own, ignoring the fact that the Governors, by his office, functions as Chancellor of universities.Countering his argument, Anbazhagan said two representatives of the government would be part of the executive council of the private universities.