States not doing enough for higher education: UGC Chairman

State governments have not shown enough commitment for strengthening higher education, UGC chairman Ved Prakash said today, stressing that the challenge before the Centre was to take them on board.
Batting for public-private partnership in higher education, he said that the UGC is going to support private initiatives in this sector in a big way and added that a suitable model of collaboration needs to be evolved in which public resources can be synergized with the private philanthropy.
"This is a huge challenge. We regulators want to say that we are not adversaries, we are companions as the goals remain the same. While they should make the most out of the regulations that we are coming out with, they should not consider them as infringement on their autonomy," Prakash said at an event today

On state higher education system, he said it has to be provided much greater support academically, administratively and financially.
"While the central government has displayed enormous amount of commitment to strengthening the higher education system, that kind of commitment is not displayed by provincial governments," Prakash said.
He maintained that the central government has already allocated 25,000 crore under Rashtriya Uchtar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) to boost up this sector in states.

"We have allocated Rs 25,000 crore under RUSA. We never had a centrally sponsored scheme in higher education sector in the country and this is the first time in higher education. The purpose of the scheme is to strengthen the state higher education system," Prakash added.

Prakash said according to his projections, the country's Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) will reach 30 per cent by 2017 despite some people saying that it will reach that percentage by 2020.
"Although people are setting goals that we would be hitting 30 per cent GER by 2020, I am of the opinion that we would this by 2017 and by the end of this current five year plan," he said.
Citing figures, Prakash said that currently there are about 20 million students enrolled in the formal sector of higher education while 4.6 million are enrolled in the open and distance learning system of higher education.

"This number is going to increase from 20 million to 29 million in the formal sector and from 4.6 million to 6.5 million in the distance learning sector in five years from now. So we are going to hit 30 per cent GER," he added.