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Where colleges are seats of power: The Economic Times
Mumbai, Sept 30: To say that Maharashtra`s higher education is in a mess would be an understatement. Experts say that the system is on the verge of a breakdown, mainly because players and regulators are the same.
Mumbai, Sept 30: To say that Maharashtra’s higher education is in a mess would be an understatement. Experts say that the system is on the verge of a breakdown, mainly because players and regulators are the same.
First some numbers. Of the total 137 private engineering colleges in the state, 104 are run by top politicians, 12 by organisations having no apparent political presence, and the rest by businessmen. (Should the concerned educational authority have a major say in the running of all educational institutions?)
There are only 20 government engineering colleges in Maharashtra. Only the toppers in the merit list make it to these institutions. Those lower in the list flock to private colleges.
In case of medical education, of the total 27 private colleges, 16 are owned by politicians and just 11 are run by the government. Students overwhelmingly prefer government colleges over private ones for their better quality of education. In the early Eighties, Vasantdada Patil, Maharashtra’s then Chief Minister, thought of spreading education to the hinterland by involving the private sector.
What he had in mind were private colleges with partial government control. The formula was to cross-subsidise the poor and meritorious by rich and the not-so brilliant students.
There were two sets of students for these new private colleges. In the first category, which was 85 per cent of the total, students were to be selected as per the merit list while paying slightly higher fees than that of the government colleges.
For the remaining 15 per cent, the colleges were given the freedom to charge higher amounts so as to cross-subsidise the first category. The political class was the first to smell blood. The state witnessed a spurt in medical and engineering colleges, all set up by politicians popular as ‘Shikshan Samrats’ or ‘Education kings’.
Though, no single party can be blamed fully, the Congress’ share of the education ‘business’ is larger than the others, possibly because they have ruled the longest. The Congress dominates the list of ‘toppers’ when it comes to setting up private colleges. Though politicians claim to own “unaided” colleges and thus want to set fees as per their wish, most have received government aid too.
In many cases the land was made available b y the government at ridiculously low prices to build colleges. Others pay only a nominal rent to the state government.
In some instances the college has been built on land belonging to the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC).
The rules of the game changed radically in October ’02, after a 11-Judge Supreme Court bench in TMA Pai Foundation and Others vs the State of Karnataka and Others case delivered a judgement that liberated private medical and engineering colleges from government control on critical issues such as admission and fees.
The SC order declared the 1993 judgement in Unnikrishnan and Others vs the State of Andhra Pradesh and Others “unconstitutional”, and allowed colleges to do away with the Common Entrance Test (CET) and dispense with free and payment quota seats.
The 1993 judgement had forced private professional colleges to fill 85 per cent of their seats at government-fixed fees and admit students only through the CET route. While the new judgement did clarify that admissions to the management quota should be “merit-based”, what it failed to lay down was any objective criteria to ensure that students are selected in a transparent manner.
The effect of the judgement was felt this year when admissions began. The Maharashtra Association of Professional Educational Institutes (MAPEI), a body of private engineering institutes as the name suggests, allowed colleges to increase their fees by a whopping 250 per cent. The fee for a payment seat in a private medical college, which was approximately Rs 1.2 lakh last year, went up to Rs 5.5 lakh plus.
The MAPEI’s new fee structure created three slabs: 10 per cent of the seats were to be reserved for the economically backward, 70 per cent for the middle-income segment and 20 per cent for the higher income groups. In absolute terms the fees would be Rs 60,000, Rs 1.9 lakh and Rs 5.6 lakh per seat per year respectively for the three groups.
According to the Student Federation of India (SFI), which conducted a study of unaided colleges in Maharashtra, the colleges would enjoy phenomenal gains with this new fees. For example, a college that earned Rs 10 crore last year, would now pocket Rs 31 crore.
Though the SC allowed private colleges to charge their own fees, it also asked the state government to check “undue profiteering” by these colleges. Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has appointed a group of ministers led by Mr Kadam to talk to colleges to lower the fees.
“It is like asking players to play and be the umpire at the same time,” a senior bureaucrat said.
Government officials say that some of these medical and engineering colleges don’t even have a hospital or a proper workshop attached to them. These officials say that with the kind of student strength these colleges have, they need to employ at least 14,000 teachers, the actual number is just half of that.
There are only 20 government engineering colleges in Maharashtra. Only the toppers in the merit list make it to these institutions. Those lower in the list flock to private colleges.
In case of medical education, of the total 27 private colleges, 16 are owned by politicians and just 11 are run by the government. Students overwhelmingly prefer government colleges over private ones for their better quality of education. In the early Eighties, Vasantdada Patil, Maharashtra’s then Chief Minister, thought of spreading education to the hinterland by involving the private sector.
What he had in mind were private colleges with partial government control. The formula was to cross-subsidise the poor and meritorious by rich and the not-so brilliant students.
There were two sets of students for these new private colleges. In the first category, which was 85 per cent of the total, students were to be selected as per the merit list while paying slightly higher fees than that of the government colleges.
For the remaining 15 per cent, the colleges were given the freedom to charge higher amounts so as to cross-subsidise the first category. The political class was the first to smell blood. The state witnessed a spurt in medical and engineering colleges, all set up by politicians popular as ‘Shikshan Samrats’ or ‘Education kings’.
Though, no single party can be blamed fully, the Congress’ share of the education ‘business’ is larger than the others, possibly because they have ruled the longest. The Congress dominates the list of ‘toppers’ when it comes to setting up private colleges. Though politicians claim to own “unaided” colleges and thus want to set fees as per their wish, most have received government aid too.
In many cases the land was made available b y the government at ridiculously low prices to build colleges. Others pay only a nominal rent to the state government.
In some instances the college has been built on land belonging to the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC).
The rules of the game changed radically in October ’02, after a 11-Judge Supreme Court bench in TMA Pai Foundation and Others vs the State of Karnataka and Others case delivered a judgement that liberated private medical and engineering colleges from government control on critical issues such as admission and fees.
The SC order declared the 1993 judgement in Unnikrishnan and Others vs the State of Andhra Pradesh and Others “unconstitutional”, and allowed colleges to do away with the Common Entrance Test (CET) and dispense with free and payment quota seats.
The 1993 judgement had forced private professional colleges to fill 85 per cent of their seats at government-fixed fees and admit students only through the CET route. While the new judgement did clarify that admissions to the management quota should be “merit-based”, what it failed to lay down was any objective criteria to ensure that students are selected in a transparent manner.
The effect of the judgement was felt this year when admissions began. The Maharashtra Association of Professional Educational Institutes (MAPEI), a body of private engineering institutes as the name suggests, allowed colleges to increase their fees by a whopping 250 per cent. The fee for a payment seat in a private medical college, which was approximately Rs 1.2 lakh last year, went up to Rs 5.5 lakh plus.
The MAPEI’s new fee structure created three slabs: 10 per cent of the seats were to be reserved for the economically backward, 70 per cent for the middle-income segment and 20 per cent for the higher income groups. In absolute terms the fees would be Rs 60,000, Rs 1.9 lakh and Rs 5.6 lakh per seat per year respectively for the three groups.
According to the Student Federation of India (SFI), which conducted a study of unaided colleges in Maharashtra, the colleges would enjoy phenomenal gains with this new fees. For example, a college that earned Rs 10 crore last year, would now pocket Rs 31 crore.
Though the SC allowed private colleges to charge their own fees, it also asked the state government to check “undue profiteering” by these colleges. Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has appointed a group of ministers led by Mr Kadam to talk to colleges to lower the fees.
“It is like asking players to play and be the umpire at the same time,” a senior bureaucrat said.
Government officials say that some of these medical and engineering colleges don’t even have a hospital or a proper workshop attached to them. These officials say that with the kind of student strength these colleges have, they need to employ at least 14,000 teachers, the actual number is just half of that.