The Hindu : Mushrooming universities

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Saturday, Jul 12, 2003

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Mushrooming universities

By Amrik Singh

Setting up universities through gazette notifications is not consistent with the existing practice.

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 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 Self-Financing Universities Bill, it would have been easier to pass.

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