At the fag-end of last year, a landmark judgment of the Supreme Court brought into sharp focus the functioning of private and deemed universities across the country. What began as a student’s grievance has culminated in an unprecedented nationwide audit of India’s vast higher education sector.
In a sweeping directive, the apex court has ordered the Centre, all states and UTs, and the University Grants Commission (UGC) to file personally sworn affidavits detailing the establishment of these institutions, their governance structures, regulatory approvals, and compliance with the statutory requirement of operating on a not-for-profit basis. While such scrutiny is long overdue, the real test will lie in whether the new year witnesses a meaningful and rigorous review of private universities, exposing systemic deficiencies rather than allowing the exercise to remain a mere procedural formality.
A central question being raised—rightly so—by a large section of scholars is whether education in India has steadily become profit-oriented. This reality can scarcely be denied, as evidenced by the growing presence of business houses establishing universities and academic institutions across the country. The more fundamental issue, however, is why such business enterprises continue to enjoy a range of concessions and regulatory leniencies while contributing little tangible value to society. This imbalance has seldom been interrogated with the seriousness it deserves, either by governments or by civil society, resulting in the normalisation of a model that prioritises commercial gain over the public purpose of education.
Most business houses find education a profitable and safe business to invest where the risk involved is virtually nil. Moreover, in the name of being not for-profit, they get land from state governments at highly subsidised rates. Recall, in 2017, a Supreme Court verdict invalidated engineering degrees awarded via unapproved distance mode to deemed universities and barred them from conducting such courses without clear regulatory approval.
The current order is far-reaching as it questions how private universities acquire land, appoint leadership, handle finances, and whether they have a credible grievance redressal mechanism. The demand for personal accountability – from chief secretaries to the UGC chairperson – signals judicial impatience with the status quo. Besides, private universities, many of which operate under different central laws, are rattled.
Prime Minister Modi has been criticising Macaulay for anglicising the Indian way of thinking, but the spread of quality education happened due to the efforts of the British. Both the Centre and states have not invested adequately to ensure the spread of education to all parts of the country and have allowed private parties to take over the business of education. There is no monitoring of fees being charged, whether seats are reserved for poor and marginalised sections and whether these institutions conform to the guidelines of the authorities, either by the Centre or states.
The larger question is how and why business houses with little or no academic background are permitted to establish educational institutions. Equally important is why educationists, doctors, engineers and other domain experts are neither adequately encouraged nor financially supported to set up universities, medical colleges, engineering institutions and similar centres of learning. The discourse could instead shift towards meaningful public–private collaboration, particularly in technical and medical education.
At a time when there is an urgent need to upgrade educational standards and ensure transparency and fairness in admissions, the implementation of the Supreme Court’s directions is both necessary and timely—though such intervention ought to have come much earlier. The real test, however, will lie in their execution. It remains to be seen whether state governments will resist institutional and political pressures and place before the Court an honest and comprehensive account of the actual state of affairs, or whether the process will be diluted through manipulation and selective disclosure.
