PPP model a hit with UP Technical University

Public-private partnership (PPP) seems to be the buzzword in Uttar Pradesh. Marking its presence in the education sector, the PPP model appears to be a major hit with the Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU).

Under the model, the private sector seems to have stolen the march over the government institutions in terms of participation under the model. About 98 per cent colleges under the University are owned privately. The state has a minimal representation in terms of college figures registered under the same.

The last government engineering college set up in Uttar Pradesh was way back in 1987. After a gap of 21 years, two government colleges are slated to initialise their operations from the upcoming academic session.

Since then the state has taken a back seat. It was only this year that two government colleges are slated to initialise their operations from the upcoming academic session.

“We have about 426 colleges under our umbrella, of which only about 10 colleges are government run,” Prof Prem Vrat, vice-chancellor, UPTU told Business Standard.

Explaining the surge in private equity being attracted to education sector, Prof Vrat, said that private participation has helped disseminate education to a large population in the state.

“The demand for colleges which offer congenial educational environment, good faculty and bright placements is on the high; the private colleges are drawing the most from this given situation,” he elaborated.

Approximately 138 new colleges are scheduled to start their academic session from next month, most of them being privately owned. In addition, the University has observed over 260,000 students seeking admissions this year. The number has grown from the last year aggregate of 212,000 students taking the said exam for various courses under the UPTU.

UPTU is the affiliating university, whose jurisdiction spans across UP in affiliating B-Tech, MBA, MCA, B-Arch, B-Pharma, BHMCT, M-Tech and PhD programmes training in all government and private institutions located all over UP in engineering, technology, architecture, pharmacy, hotel management and catering technology as well as MBA and MCA programmes.

But seeing the upswing in the number of students taking the UPTU exams this year and the increased number of colleges set to begin their academic session this year, Prof Vrat is concerned over the ‘quality’ aspect of education.

“Quality is the key. Given the mind-boggling rate at which we have grown this year in terms of new colleges being opened, we are little concerned over the quality of education we offer and quality of students we tend to produce.”

In an attempt to strike a balance between the ongoing surge and expected level of return in terms of ‘quality’, the UPTU is mulling to create barriers at the entry point for colleges striving to attain affiliation under it.

“We tend to introduce at the initial level preliminary checks of the institute in terms of background of the people establishing the college, their objective and mission for establishment,” he added.