Private universities under the scanner

All private universities of the country have come under the scanner following a Supreme Court order of September 17, asking all private and deemed-to-be universities to disclose five years of audited financial records, fee structures, and fund utilization, ruling that they cannot function as profit-making commercial entities. While one should not assume that things are not in order in all private universities and deemed-to-be universities, the fact remains that there are quite a number of them which hit media headlines for the wrong reasons from time to time. In one such incident, the promoter/chancellor of a private university in Meghalaya had also faced arrest a few years ago. The particular order of the Supreme Court was passed while disposing of a case “Ayesha Jain versus Amity University, Noida” in which a student brought for certain serious grievances against the said university. It is important to note that the Supreme Court, while examining the initial complaint regarding student documentation and name-change records, found certain grave institutional irregularities. Based on the initial findings, the apex court then chose to expand the scope into a comprehensive, nationwide examination in the larger public interest. While this legal shift reflects the Supreme Court’s broader understanding that arbitrary administrative practices, steep fee hikes, and lack of transparency are widespread issues affecting the growing private universities sector, it is also an eye-opener for millions of students who are either enrolled in such universities, or are aspiring to join one such institution. Also important to note, the Supreme Court division bench comprising Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and NV Anjaria have also emphatically ruled that private universities cannot be permitted to operate as profit-making commercial enterprises. The apex court also barred diversion of funds for non-educational purposes, and directed that details on admissions, fee collections, recruitments, etc., must be made available to regulatory bodies. This development also brings to fore the fact that private universities fall under purview of the RTI Act. This had emerged from a Gauhati High Court order in connection with an RTI application of Dr Nani Bath, a professor at Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar, seeking details from Indira Gandhi Technological and Medical Sciences University, a private university in Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh. For the record, there are at least 66 private universities spread across the eight Northeastern states. Among them, the highest number of private universities – twenty-six – is in Sikkim, a state whose present population is only about seven lakh! Likewise, Arunachal Pradesh, with a population of about 19 lakh, has eight private universities. Meghalaya too is not lagging behind: it has seven private universities, Assam has eleven, Tripura five, Nagaland and Manipur four each and Mizoram one. Whether the Northeast actually needs so many private universities of course is another issue.