To maintain education quality, UGC to tighten scrutiny of private universities

Hundreds of acts under which private universities are set up in different states will be examined in light of the latest parameters that UGC will soon come up with, a senior official said.

To ensure that the mushrooming of private universities across the country does not lead to a decline in the standard of education, the Union human resources development (HRD) ministry has initiated a massive exercise in which hundreds of legislations establishing these varsities will be scrutinised to identify if there are deviations from set norms, according to a senior official familiar with the developments. The exercise, which is expected to begin mid-November, is being led by the regulator of the higher education sector, University Grants Commission (UGC), which has already collected at least 300 state acts. A team of legal consultants working with Niti Aayog will study these acts to give a holistic picture, the official added.