'Not enough done to regulate pvt/public higher edu'

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, Mar 19: Industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has said not enough is being done by the Government to effectively regulate the public and private higher education institutions to overcome quality and access issues respectively.

Simplification of the regulatory environment, single window approval system, certainty in government policies and effective monitoring and accreditation of higher education sector are the main recommendations emerging from a FICCI survey on 'Developing An Understanding Of Private Higher Education In India: A Stakeholder Perspective'.

The survey will be released at the Higher Education Summit on Private Higher Education: Opportunities and Challenges, being organised here by FICCI in partnership with UGC on March 23-24, 2006.

The survey covers more than 4,000 respondents across 11 cities in the stakeholder segment, comprising students, parents, faculty, recruiters and promoters.

One of the main revelations of the survey is that although promoters of self-financing private Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) recognise the need for meeting regulatory requirements and getting affiliation and recognition, the topmost challenge perceived by them is the uncertainty and the complexity of government regulatory environment whereas, the least challenging issue was financing the institute.

Most of the promoter-respondents supported a one-window clearance system as multiplicity of regulating agencies like University Grant Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Medical Council of India, and Central Council of Indian Medicine. leads to duplication of procedures causing immense loss of time and resources.

Also, the uncertainties in the government policies in terms of affiliations, admissions and reservations of seats hinders in long-term planning process of the institutions.

The FICCI survey reveals that almost 70 per cent of students and recruiters sought government intervention in monitoring and accreditation of private HEIs.

Almost 87 per cent faculty wants government role in accreditation, 71 per cent want in admission, 69.6 per cent in numbers of enrollment and 63.85 per cent in eligibility criteria.

A majority 94 per cent of recruiters want government regulation in admission tests, 76 per cent in enrollment and 51 per cent in reservation in private HEIs.

The chamber says that the growth of the Indian higher education sector in the past decade has increasingly shown a trend towards increasing private sector participation in India.

''With outlay of limited government funding mostly targeted to develop a few institutes of excellence, the role of the private sector would only increase in the years to come,'' FICCI said.

However, some of the practices in the private intuitions have revealed that unregulated privatisation of higher education sector is perhaps not a desirable solution.

The survey reveals that so far neither legislation nor any concrete government measures have been effectively implemented to overcome the quality and access issues in higher education.

UNI

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