The Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD) Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' informed the Parliament on December 9 that there are 344 private universities operating in India. He also added that 71 out of 344 universities have been vetted by the UGC Expert Committees from 2016-2019.
His answer came after Members of Parliament asked questions regarding the standard and process of inspection used to judge the private universities in the country.
After the Act in respect of setting up of a private university was passed by the State Legislature and notified by the State Government, the concerned University now requires to submit a detailed report to the University Grants Commission (UGC ) in order to undergo the process of inspection.
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Reports say that 263 private universities have already submitted their reports to UGC for inspection. Out of 263, the UGC has inspected 199 universities. The UGC has further noted that 132 private universities out of these 199 have submitted compliance reports.
The reports of the Expert Committees consisting of observation, suggestion and shortcomings were sent to the concerned university. The Commission informed that 42 universities have presented their compliance reports.
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The Expert Committee that is held responsible for the inspection includes representative(s) from the Statutory Councils who are to look at faculty, infrastructure, programmes, finance, etc. in the private university. These should be in accordance with the UGC (Establishment of and Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities) Regulations 2003.
India has over 900 universities including 404 state universities, 126 Deemed to be universities and 50 central universities.