AICTE orders 242 private institutes to be shut down

At present, 184 private universities have been established in the country through State Legislations. During the last five years, different State Governments have set up 127 Private Universities.

HRD Minister Smiriti Irani stated that some private universities which have been created recently by State Government are facing problems of poor infrastructure and lack of qualified teachers.

The private universities were inspected by the UGC with the help of expert committees which include representatives from the concerned Statutory Council(s).

These expert committees visit the private universities to assess the fulfillment of minimum criteria in terms of programmes, faculty, infrastructural facilities, financial viability, etc. as laid down by the UGC and Statutory Bodies concerned.

Out of the 184 private universities, the UGC expert committees have visited 85 private universities. The UGC visiting expert committees and AICTE expert committees have pointed out some deficiencies in the infrastructure and availability of qualified faculty.

The reports of the expert committees are placed before the commission for consideration and the reports are sent to Institutions concerned for rectification of the defects and compliance.

Presently, all the private universities in the country have been established by the Acts of the State Legislatures and these are being regulated by the UGC as per the provisions contained in the UGC (Establishment of and Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities) Regulations, 2003.

During the last three years, 242 private institutions were ordered to be closed down by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

The specific reasons for closure of the Institutes are:

1. There is less demand for institutes located in rural areas for admission, as the institutes are not able to provide an industry-institute-interface and campus placements. It may be noted that generally the students are interested in migrating to cities for education.
2. The demand for certain branches of engineering is less and institutes offering only such branches face the problem of not getting the seats filled up.
3. Attracting good faculty in educational institutions situated in rural areas is also difficult as there are no other openings for their spouses and children for employment and studies which in turn affect the quality of education and thereby the demand for such colleges is less.