Tamil Nadu

Regulatory mechanism for private varsities sought

MADURAI: A two-day conference on ‘social control on higher education’ began here on Saturday with academics calling for an effective government regulation over the functioning of private universities.

While stressing that social control is a necessity for the benefit of students from all sections of the society, the conference sent out a message that higher education cannot escape from the purview of a strict regulatory authority if the objective is to make education accessible and affordable.

Vice-Chancellor of Mother Teresa Women’s University Aruna Sivakami, in her inaugural address, said that State universities should not be made ‘subservient’ to private or foreign universities under any circumstance.

She was speaking at the 19th general conference of the Madurai Kamaraj-Manonmanian Sundaranar-Mother Teresa- Alagappa University Teachers’ Association (MUTA) in which representatives from national level associations, academicians, Vice-Chancellors and union leaders are participating.

“Instead of allowing rich people to start higher education institutions, make them contribute to public institutions and allow them to have their name.”

She also felt that the number of affiliated colleges under a particular university must be reduced to prevent the administration becoming unwieldy.

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