Representatives from private universities were largely absent at the national consultation meeting of the task force for the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER).
Confusion was caused by invitations being sent only to government university Vice-Chancellors and some educationists for the meeting.
Officials of Anna University - Chennai, which hosted the meeting, said they had been asked in a letter from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to invite up to 30 persons. Invitations to government university Vice-Chancellors and some educationists, including former vice-chancellors V.C. Kulandai Swamy and D. Vishwanathan, exhausted this number.
When the question was raised by R. Sethuraman, Vice-Chancellor, SASTRA University, a deemed university, an MHRD official clarified that the meeting was open to them as stakeholders.
The university sent a representative who presented the institution’s views on the NCHER Bill.
However, Mr. Sethuraman questioned the reason for inviting only government university Vice-Chancellors.
Among the representations made by SASTRA University were questions regarding the status of deemed universities if the Bill was enacted and came into force, and ways of monitoring their existing infrastructure, especially in the case of institutions that had opened many off-campus centres.
The university also asked why medical education had been left out of the scope of the Bill.
G. Viswanathan, Chancellor, VIT University, said his university could not participate because there was no invitation or public announcement about the meeting apart from a media report.
P. Jayagandhi, president, Association of University Teachers (AUT), said he had come to know about the meeting through a media report and had then contacted various government authorities. Following his queries, Anna University officials said they were allowing him “on his request.”
The NCHER Bill does not distinguish between State-run and private universities and brings them under the same regulations.
One proposal in the Bill includes all universities under the ambit of the Right to Information Act as public institutions.
Private university representatives pointed out such provisions showed they were important stakeholders in any discussion of the proposals in the Bill.
