Editorial
Accreditation council for private universities
A welcome move
We welcome the government's plan to set up an accreditation council which will independently review the academic standards of private universities. This will increase transparency of the institutions, allowing people to know university rankings and to ensure healthy competition among private educational institutions and quality education overall.
Hundreds of private universities -- many of them unregistered and appearing and some disappearing at will without even providing certificates to students, let alone quality education -- have sprung up across the capital in the last 20 years. Some of them have been housed one on top of the other inside commercial buildings and even garment factories. Of even the 139 government-approved institutions, the quality of education imparted at many if not most of them has been questionable. More than anything, they are businesses, extracting exorbitant fees from students without any other higher education options. Despite the high fees, however, quality of faculty members, resources and facilities are generally inadequate. High grades and, ultimately, degrees, are easy to obtain. Commercialisation is key and governance is poor.
It must be mentioned though that in the face of limited capacity of public universities for enrolment, the private universities have by and large filled in the void. And, some of them have performed extraordinarily, providing excellent education.
While the matter has been taken up by the government and relevant bodies such as the University Grants Commission over the years, it requires a stricter and more structured approach. We believe that an accreditation council is a step in the right direction. It is important that the experts assigned to the task are just that -- experts in the field of education capable of judging the standards of the institutions precisely and objectively.
Thousands of students come from far and wide to enrol in private universities every year, their families sometimes investing beyond their means in what they hope will ensure good education and in the future, bright employment prospects for their next generation. They have a right to know what options they have available to be able to choose the path toward their own futures.
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