People's Democracy

Red Carpet To Private And Foreign Universities

K K Ragesh

THE Supreme Court, in a recent judgement, declared that 112 private universities established in Chhattisgarh under the Chhattisgarh Private Universities Act are illegal. This is a vindication of the stand taken by the academicians and vast sections of students community against the establishment of private universities in our country.

The court quashed the decision of the Chhattisgarh government basically on the grounds that the UGC was not consulted, nor were its guidelines on the establishment of a university followed while giving a green signal to the opening of private universities in the state. The Supreme Court judgement, however, is based only on certain technical flaws in the said act and is not a policy statement against private universities per se. Prior to this judgement, the central government had already initiated steps during the recent education ministers conference held in January to remove legal hurdles in the way of establishing private universities as well as off-campus centres of foreign universities in our country. This proposed move is highly dangerous for the future of education in our society and the task of building intellectual self-reliance of our nation.  

PROPOSAL STILL BEING JUSTIFIED

The academic community, especially students throughout the country, observed the MHRD initiated conference of state education ministers, held in Bangalore on January 10-11, with much anticipation. Even though the conference came up with a consensus on enacting a central legislation to regulate fees and admissions in private self-financing institutions, it is quite unfortunate that the background paper prepared by the MHRD also found place for certain perilous recommendations like granting greater autonomy to deemed universities and making provisions to ‘regulate’ private universities and foreign educational ‘providers’ including foreign universities in our country.

The discussion paper circulated in the education ministers conference states that “as the establishment of self-financing private universities would require a broadly uniform set of guidelines for ensuring academic standards, prevention of commercialisation and mismanagement, etc; the enactment of an enabling legislation of general applicability was considered expedient. The Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) Bill, 1995 was, therefore, introduced in the Rajya Sabha…” Now the government feels that “except for a couple of amendments based on the recommendation of the committee (parliamentary standing committee) and a few amendments correcting certain inadvertent mistakes subsequently found in the bill, no other amendment was required in the bill.” It is obvious from the arguments made in the background paper that the government is trying to justify its proposal under the garb of regulating sub-standard private universities and foreign institutions that are already operating in our country.

Due to popular opposition against the enactment of the Private Universities Bill introduced in 1995, the government was forced to keep the issue in the cold storage. Even the BJP-led government dared not open the issue. Even though the Private Universities Bill is still lying before the Rajya Sabha, in the interim period, many state governments have enacted acts in their respective states paving the way for the establishment of private universities. More than 100 private universities were established in Chhattisgarh alone through a single umbrella act. Three private universities were established in Uttaranchal, two in Gujarat and one each in Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh through separate acts. The Chhattisgarh act (the Chhattisgarh Niji Kshetra Vishwavidyalaya (Sthapana Aur Viniyam Adhiniyam, 2002) allowed the state government to establish a university through a mere notification in the state official gazette on the basis of the project report submitted. Such institutions were also allowed to open off-campus centres outside the state. The central government and the UGC never intervened to derecognise these institutions established purely with commercial motives flouting all the requisite norms. Instead, the UGC came up with certain shabby regulations that in effect acknowledged these institutions on the pretence of regulation. Now the UPA government is trying to revive the earlier bill under the pretext of regulating the private universities already established or about to be established under various state acts.

NO RATIONALE EXCEPT PROFIT

In this context, it is important to take stock of certain developments that have taken place in the realm of higher education in our country in the last few years. Higher education has seen an unprecedented growth in the past ten years. This growth has taken place primarily in the realm of professional and technical education. The World Bank dictated policies of the central government have paved way for this unprecedented and unrestrained escalation in the number of private capitation fee colleges. While the number of engineering colleges had grown from 44 in 1947 to 157 in 1980, they have increased to 1346 by 2004. The same is the case with other courses.

A big bulk of this unprecedented increase is from the so-called capitation fee colleges which comprise more than 90 per cent of this increase. It is significant that the reports of various committees set up by the AICTE and the MHRD have been rather critical of this growth because most of it is unplanned and does not consider the needs of the economy and society. Many committees have expressed serious doubts regarding the ‘viability, quality and credibility of the Indian professional education.’ Yet, the government today is willing to ignore the observations made by its own departmental committees.

It is obvious from experience in the student movement that private players, who collect exorbitant fees, establish educational institutes primarily to satiate their greed for profits. This is the reason why many of the exorbitantly priced seats in such private institutes lie vacant, in spite of students’ aspiration for the attainment of a professional degree. If the government is really intent on expanding the scope of higher education, it has to increase its public spending by allocating more money in the budget. Any argument which seeks to depend upon private player to fulfil the responsibility of catering to the educational aspirations of the people is basically fallacious.

The private institutions operating in our country toady have largely replaced merit with money power. The issue of granting permission to the establishment of private universities, therefore, seems to have no rational except that of catering to the demands of powerful private managements.

OBJECTIVES IGNORED

The constitution of India empowers the central government to ensure that the standard of higher education including technical education is properly maintained. The UGC, MCI, AICTE, etc. were established in order to discharge this responsibility. But after opening up the education sector to the market forces, the UGC, MCI, AICTE, etc. have largely ignored the questions regarding insufficient infrastructure and poor quality of education imparted in these private educational institutes. A free hand given to private institutes has resulted in a decline of the quality in education. Even basic amenities like sufficient and qualified teaching staff and infrastructure facilities are absent. The committee set up by the AICTE to review engineering education points that “In permitting the growth of self-financing institutions,  then, the criteria were not defined in a manner to encourage the emergence of high quality institutions with a reasonable control over their management practices… The commercialisation of education became rampant with the collection of capitation fees as a regular practice despite some states attempting to curb them through laws, which were ineffective.” All this points to the fact that the government and all its regulating agencies have failed in regulating even simple private institutes. If we are to believe that they will be able to control or regulate private universities in the coming days it would be a case of living in a fool’s paradise.

The Kothari commission of 1964 correctly elucidates the basic objectives and functions of universities and their role in national life: “A university stands for humanism, for tolerance, for reason, for the adventure of ideas and for the search of truth. It stands for the onward march of the human race towards even higher objectives. If the universities discharge their duties adequately, then it is well with the nation and the people…Their principal object is to deepen man’s understanding of the universe and of himself - in body mind and spirit, to disseminate this understanding throughout society and to apply it in the service of mankind…. They are the dwelling places of ideas and idealism, and expect high standards of conduct and integrity from all their members... Theirs is the pursuit of truth and excellence in all its diversity.”

The commission continues and states that the function of a university is “to engage vigorously in the pursuit of truth and to interpret old knowledge and beliefs in the light of new needs and discoveries…to provide the right kind of leadership in all walks of life…to strive to promote equality and social justice and reduce social and cultural differences through diffusion of education…”

INSTITUTIONALISING MEDIOCRITY

These recommendations were appreciated by the entire academic community and accepted by the government for implementation. No private university can be expected to perform these functions. The experience of private institutes further vindicates this point. The private players will be more concerned with profits and will mould courses to suit the demands of the market. The concerns of corporate houses and big business establishments will dominate the areas of research. Societal needs and interests will be put at stake. Quality of research, a very vital component in assessing the standing of a university, will become the main casualty. As it is, the quality of research in government institutions is suffering due to the apathy of the government. Now, if private universities are permitted we can forget about producing anything substantial for the welfare of the society.

It is argued in the discussion note of the education ministers conference that private parties did not show any interest in establishing private universities in 1995 due to the large number of conditions sought to be imposed on them by the then government. By implication, then, today the government seeks to further loosen the non-existent conditions to make the participation of profit oriented private players more conducive. The discussion paper acknowledges the demand of private deemed universities for the removal of any control on them with regards to admission policy, fee collection, designing of courses and syllabi and appointment of staff. The deemed universities even demand that the government must do away with the practice of giving a NOC for starting any off-campus centre outside the state. The UPA government appears to have a  positive disposition towards all these demands, and if they are accepted it will result in a chaos in higher education, with quality and accessibility being the biggest casualties. Many sub-standard self-financing institutes will immediately apply for university status instead of continuing as mere institutes, thereby further institutionalising mediocrity and commercialisation in the field of higher education.  

SOCIO-CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS

If foreign universities, as envisaged in the discussion paper, are allowed, it will be suicidal for the intellectual self-reliance of our country. The report of the ‘Policy Perspective Seminar On Internationalisation Of Higher Education And Operation Of Foreign Universities In India’ states:  “Though this idea sounds well and high, but in practice it might as well result in selected flow of information/knowledge and skills from one set of countries to another set of countries in one direction whether in a single or multi-disciplines subjects. If this happens then it might as well result in draining of resources of receiving country as well as strong cultural and political influence by one set of countries on other set of countries.”

Thus, opening up of the education sector to foreign players means that the entire edifice of higher education will crumble and the future of democratic public education will be bleak. A meeting of vice-chairpersons of state councils of higher education, vice-chancellors and experts on  ‘Trade in Education Services under WTO Regime’ organised by NIEPA further stated that “Even making it [higher education] a full cost paying service has caused social and cultural trauma in many countries including developed countries. Making open to world competition with high cost of education might cause further socio-cultural problems. These may be unmanageable in the developing countries and particularly in India. Global competition, full or profit cost pricing of education has several socio-cultural implications and may adversely affect the constitutional obligations of equity.”

It is interesting to note here that the US and Japan, two of the key countries behind the pushing through of the GATS treaty, under which the foreign universities are sought to be established in our country, did not open up their higher education sector to foreign players. While the US has opened only adult education services for foreign investments, Japan has opened it only for recognised non-profitable organisations. Another important fact that needs to be remembered is that higher education in most of the West European countries is in the public system and this is clearly in the knowledge of our government itself. Thus, on the one hand the developed countries want to exploit the growing demand for higher education in the developing countries to satiate the greed for profits for their own corporations, on the other hand they are not ready to open up their own education sector for other countries. The developed countries, especially the US, have discovered that by capturing the education system of third world countries, they can manufacture thoughts and attitudes conducive to consumerism and produce standardised people who will not challenge their hegemony.

DON’T BACKSTAB THE PEOPLE

The high ideals of our fore-fathers about sovereignty and self-reliance will be put at stake. Higher education, that plays an important role in shaping self-reliant thought, will lose its edge and become a tool in the hands of the corporate and imperialist interests. The GATS agreement that forms the basis for permitting trade in services has got many restrictions imposed which are detrimental to the interests of the common people of our country. Article 15 of the agreement states that subsidies provided to any service have ‘distortive affect’ and hence need to be withdrawn. This effectively means an end to all sorts of scholarships and freeships provided to the students of this country. This provision, if implemented, will virtually sound the death for social justice in our country. The blatant pro-rich bias of the government and its financial interests are at display on one more issue. In the discussion paper, the government proposes in the guideline for the establishment of foreign universities that 80 per cent of the surplus generated by FEPs must be retained within the country. Within the same discussion paper the government sheds its own high rhetoric of ‘providing education at no profit and no loss basis.’

The UPA government that has come to power on the basis of a popular vote against the anti-people economic and education policies of the previous government. It  should not revert back to the same principles of the previous government. The present government had given rise to many hopes when it had scrapped the Model Act 2004 of the UGC which was put up for discussion at the behest of the BJP-led NDA government. But unfortunately even before the initial euphoria of defeating the previous government has subsided, it has come up with many measures that are against the interests of the students and the common masses. In fact the present proposal of the government to introduce a Private Universities Bill and permit FEPs in India, does not differ much with the earlier expunged Model Act, except for the fact that the authors are more eager to have their name printed in bold to please their imperialist bosses. This is nothing but back-stabbing the people.