Private Universities Bill reaches CMO, varsities to offer degree to PhD courses

Thiruvananthapuram: A Bill paving the way to establish private universities to offer courses, including engineering and medical, has reached the Chief Minister's Office, officials have confirmed.

The Bill would be presented in the Cabinet meeting. The government plans to place the Bill before the Assembly in its next session.

Major clauses in the Bill

• 25 per cent of the total students should be from Kerala
• Scheduled Caste/Tribe students should be given reservation in admission. The Cabinet will decide on the percentage.
• Only eligible teachers recommended by government agencies should be appointed
• The universities could offer courses — from degree to PhD — in all subjects, including Arts, Medical and Engineering
• No restrictions on cooperating with universities in the public or private sectors

Land requirement

• If the university is within corporation limits, it should have a minimum of 20 acres.
• In municipality and panchayat limits, the universities should be established on 30 and 40 acres, respectively
• If the plan is to establish the campus outside the university, the headquarters should be set up on 10 acres

How to apply?

• Applications should be made to the state government
• A six-member committee, with an educationist as its head, will decide on granting permission
• The respective district collector will be the ex-officio member of the committees

The drafting of the Bill
The State Budget Finance Minister KN Balagopal presented in the Assembly on Monday, January 5, proposed to initiate measures to establish private universities in the State.

However, the government had assigned the State Higher Education Council to study the possibility of setting up such universities. The draft Bill on private universities was drawn up based on its recommendations.

After scrutinising the draft Bill, the Legal Department made some suggestions, including reservation as envisaged in the Constitution. The Department of Higher Education included the Legal Department's recommendations before forwarding the Bill to the Chief Minister's Office.

Clearing the path for foreign universities
Officials in the Higher Education Department hinted that certain amendments would be made to the Private Universities Bill to allow foreign universities to set up their campuses in Kerala.

However, though the Private Universities Bill mandates reservation, officials said further studies are required to ascertain whether it would apply to foreign universities.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued the norms for establishing the campuses of foreign universities. Only those universities on the list of the top 500, could set up campuses in India.

The UGC has allowed foreign universities to issue certificate, diploma, degree, post-graduate, and research course certificates. Kerala would include the UGC norm in its guidelines as well.

• No of universities in India (According to UGC): 1,074
• Universities under the control of States: 430
• Deemed: 128
• Central universities: 56

(As many as 140 private universities were established in the past five years, with 28 of them coming up in Gujarat.)