Private varsities eye global footprint on back of IoE tag

Garima Singh Private Universities, who are set to bag the Institute of Eminence Tag, are expected to cash in on their newly minted status to expand footprint abroad, educationists said.

Also on the anvil is renewed focus on research to meet their global aspirations, they said.

“We plan to set up institutes within and outside India. Another way forward for the next five years would be coming up with more research-focussed resources, as good research would lead to good collaboration,” said H Vinod Bhat, Vice-Chancellor, Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

Manipal Academy of Higher Education is one of the private universities selected for IoE status.

“In the current globalised scenario, the aim of the private universities would be setting up campuses overseas. As these institutes will have full autonomy now, they would also work towards their research programmes, come up with multi-disciplinary degrees. Also, they would collaborate with the overseas universities for which they did not have freedom so far,” said Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education.

Pai, also an education expert, added “As the academic institutes move at a slow pace, we need to give them at least ten years to make it to the top ranking institutes of the world.”

Increase in fees

There is also a fear that after getting full autonomy, selected private institutes are expected to increase their fee.

“There is a strong probability that those private universities who would make it to the list might increase their fee as they would be regulation free,” said Furqan Qamar, Secretary General, Association of Indian Universities.

Refuting the claim, a senior leadership of a private university said, “I do not agree with this. Changes in the fees are made on the basis of market condition. The main aim of the selected private universities would be working towards making globally recognised universities and to give students high quality education.”

More options for students

As the tag is going to bring some value for the institutes, experts believe that it is going to open more avenues for the students as some of them could not make it to the sought-after colleges due to high cut-off list.

“Delhi University has not expanded its base and due to high cut-offs not everybody can make it. Their idea is to squeeze quantity, quality will come in but I do not agree with this. The best students are the ones who secure between 80-90 per cent as they are the all rounders,” he said.

According to the Knowledge Commission, India requires 1,500 universities, however, right now the country has 900.

“We have a challenge of capacity and providing high quality education, therefore, responsibility is on both public and private universities. So, IoE is a step taken in right the direction,” said person mentioned above.

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