Experts question merit of upcoming private varsities

Even as the Orissa government is gearing up to grant the private university status to educational institutes in the state, leading educationists have questioned the quality of such institutions and the credentials of the promoters running them.

They have suggested that the state government needs to come out with a well defined policy on Private Universities and give priority to the local educational entrepreneurs while granting the status of private universities.

“The state government has given its nod for the Sri Sri University and the Vedanta University project without realizing the fact that the promoters of these projects have no prior experience in running educational institutions.

Equally disturbing is the lack of clarity on the part of the state government which does not have any clear cut policy on setting up of private universities”, said a leading educational entrepreneur who did not wish to be identified.

While the state government should undoubtedly promote private universities, preference should be given to the players in the state who have proved their worth in delivering qualitative education, he added.

Others have cast doubts on the rationale behind setting up of new universities and scaling up student intake at a time when more than 50 per cent of the seats in disciplines like engineering, MBA and MCA are falling vacant in the state.

Prabir Pal, director of the city-based Regional College of Management (RCM) said, “The total MBA intake in the state is more than 5000 but there are only 2800 applicants for this course for the 2010-11 academic session. It has been observed that less than 50 per cent of the applicants take admission in the MBA course in the state. Similarly, there are only 1300 applicants for the MCA course compared to the total intake of around 4000.”

It nay be noted that the task force on higher education headed by Trilochan Pradhan had called for an additional 30 universities in the state including a specialized management university to help raise the enrolment rate of higher education.