Pvt edu institution regulatory body headless for over a year

The Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission, which is tasked to keep a watch on the functioning of private institutions, has been doing without a Chairperson for the past one year.

After the completion of the tenure of Major General Atul Kaushik (retd) in August 2023, the state government has failed to fill the statutory post.

The commission is a supervisory body, which monitors the functioning of nearly 300 institutions of higher education, including 17 private universities and 16 private engineering colleges, in the state.

The regulatory commission was established by the State Government under Section 3 of the Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions (Regulatory Commission) Act, 2010 (Act No. 15 of 2011) for the purpose of providing a regulatory mechanism in the state and for working as an interface between the state government and Central regulatory bodies for the purpose of ensuring appropriate standards of admission, teaching, examination, research, extension programmes and protection of interest of students of the private higher educational institutions.

The commission has been mandated to ensure that qualified teachers and infrastructure are maintained by the private educational institutions in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Government of India and University Grant Commission from time to time.

In case any educational institution fails to meet the standards laid down, the commission shall have the power to penalise the institution under Section 11 of the Act. In case of successive failures of an institution to meet the standards, the commission may recommend to the state government for the winding up of the institution.

Since the commission is without the Chairperson, instances of exploitation of students by private institutions have gone up in the past one year. It is alleged that many universities and institutions are not adhering to the norms of admission based on merit achieved in the National Common Entrance Test or the State Common Entrance Test. Besides, the redressal of grievances for refund of security and fees of students also remain unattended.

Vipin Singh Parmar, BJP MLA and former Speaker of the assembly, while addressing the media has asked the Chief Minister to fill the vacant post of Chairperson of the Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission to maintain the standard of higher education and protect the interests of students studying in more than 300 institutions in the state.