India needs 600 more varsities in 12 years: Sibal

New Delhi, Mar 30: Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday, Mar 30, said that India needs 600 more universities and 35,000 colleges in next 12 years.

Sibal was speaking at the CII Northern Region Annual Meeting on 'Tomorrow's North: Green & Educated'.

Sibal said, "An additional 600 universities and 35,000 colleges will be required over the coming 12 years. For this to happen, private sector participation would be an essential element."

Sibal also announced that a policy framework is underway for public assets (schools, colleges, institute buildings) to be used by private players for skill training.

"India needs to invest in the intangible wealth of ideas and innovations and this is possible only if we can increase the gross enrollment in higher education from 12.4 pc to a minimum of 30 pc by 2020," Sibal said.

The HRD Minister said, "Change in mindsets, openness to fresh ideas, liberalization and involvement of the community at the local level only can bring about this."

He called for a self disclosure format for education institutes for assets, faculty, teacher-pupil ratio, fee structure etc, while those who put in erroneous information would be penalized through law.

"A state level architecture for providing financial / loan assistance to students was also an inclusive agenda of education," he added.

OneIndia News