Regulate private universities

With 22 private universities already functioning in Punjab and two more proposed, it seems setting up a university is easier (and more profitable) than setting up an industry.  When the Sant Baba Bhag Singh University Bill 2014 was presented in the Punjab Assembly, many legislators voiced their concern about lack of a regulatory body to monitor the mushrooming private universities and eliminate chances of student exploitation. 

The announcement that soon a regulatory body, the Punjab Educational Institute Regulatory Authority, will be set up is welcome, although belated. It should have been set up before the proliferation of private universities. Even in the past decisions to allow private universities were often rushed through without a considered debate. Universities by their very nature, role and function cannot be set up in an arbitrary manner without doing a financial audit, a cost-benefit analysis and ensuring balanced locational spread so as to cater to the maximum number of students. Even the source of finances of the promoters need to be examined. 

The State cannot abdicate its social responsibility to ensure quality higher education. Students can be short-changed by exorbitant fee structures in the race to notch up profits, with little or no accountability. Besides flawed admission procedures, infrastructure offered is usually inadequate and, citing autonomy, huge donations are charged. Lack of focus on job-readiness makes employability a casualty in these “graduate-creating” conveyor belts. If it does not have resources for setting up quality higher education institutes, the least it can do is to ensure that checks and balances are in place. If it is profitable to tap education as the sunshine sector, the government must ensure students get value for money. Most importantly, why not focus on the base of the pyramid, that is, primary education which is a casualty of the government’s cavalier attitude and skewed priorities.