Gujarat Private Universities (Second Amendment) Bill 2021

The Private Universities (Second Amendment) Bill 2021, in the state of Gujarat was passed unanimously in the State Assembly on the first day of the monsoon session. This bill will prevent scholarship-funded universities from joining private universities.

Highlights

• The bill aims to prevent scholarship-funded universities from affiliating with private universities.
• The government had decided to reconsider its earlier decision to allow such membership after receiving various opinions from various stakeholders against the measure.
• The bill was also supported by opposition parties.

Other Details

Gujarat universities are traditionally run by educational corporations or trusts founded decades ago by industrialists and philanthropists. These colleges would also be associated with state universities. However, as time passed, the same industrial companies behind the trusts also founded their own universities. And after this the scholarship funded colleges started affiliating with these private universities.

Conclusion

With the new amendment, which suspends the affiliation of funded universities with private universities, the administration and operation of those universities by educational foundations would remain “difficult.” If implemented, it would have been beneficial to state and private universities, said one of the education fund officials. The state government bears the full cost of salaries and operating costs, and  private universities would have  better control over these institutes. In this scenario, however, the funded universities would now become private universities.