Passed unanimously in the state legislative assembly on Wednesday, The Bihar Private Universities Amendment Bill, 2017 permits new universities satisfying all provisions of the same act, to commence their operations from rented or temporary campuses. In a state that has just 13 state government universities, including regular, technical and agriculture varsities, as the current bill has easing up some of the norms of previous Bihar Private Universities Act passed in 2013, the move is expected to attract the best private universities to come to Bihar.
Bihar Government for more universities
While tabling the bill in the state assembly, Bihar education minister Ashok Choudhary on Wednesday said, “The move aims to improve the quality of higher education in the state.” The root cause experts believe lies in the abysmally low gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education in Bihar, which is merely 13.9 as against the national average of around 24. The GER stood at 13 last year. Choudhary further added, “We are committed at realising Chief Minister Nitish Kumars ambitious target of touching 30 by the end of 2020.”
The changes with the Act 2017?
The new bill allows new universities to start their operations from a 5,000 square metre rented or temporary campus as against the earlier requirement of 10,000 square metre building area and meeting all other conditions in the Letter of Intent. The new act also goes further and provides new varsities, a total of four years from the date of issuance of LoI, to fulfill all required norms,” as told by an official from education department.
No new Private Universities since the last Act!
The bureaucratic apparatus seemed to be a likely bottleneck for establishing private higher learning institutes with issues in acquiring land, construction of building and other infrastructure facilities. The official also said: “There are numerous proposals, in the dozens pending with the state education department at different levels.”
