140 private universities set up in India over past 5 years
Context:
- According to the recent data of the Ministry of Education, there are as many as 140 private universities which were established in the country during the past five years.
- Among these 140 private universities, the highest number of universities being set up in Gujarat, followed by Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
- The data also notes that there are 28 private universities which were established in Gujarat and 15 in Maharashtra during the period.
- Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka have 14 and 10 private universities among them, respectively.
Procedure for setting up of a Private University:
- A private university is generally established by an Act which is passed by the State legislature concerned and notification issued by the State government concerned.
- The name of a private university created through the above procedure is included in the list of universities by the University Grants Commission (UGC) as per Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956.
- In order to be included in the list of universities by UGC, the private university needs to submit the receipt of the copies of the Act and notification from the university.
- The above mentioned private universities are empowered to award general degree programmes without any specific approval of the commission.
- However it is important to note that the approvals for running professional and medical programmes are given by the respective regulatory or statutory bodies.
- Also Professional and medical programmes are governed by the norms of respective bodies such as the All Indian Council for Technical Education, National Medical Commission, and the Dental Council of India.