Maharashtra government nod to improvement in rules for self-financed private colleges

Minister of State for Technical and Higher Education Ravindra Waikar.

TAKING COGNISANCE of a letter from the Minister of State for Technical and Higher Education Ravindra Waikar to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis asking for transparency in the functioning of self-financed private universities, the state cabinet on Thursday gave approval for improvements in the university guidelines for such colleges.

In his letter sent last month, Waikar had demanded to hold back permissions given to five self-financed private universities. He said that after receiving permissions, such universities started functioning arbitrarily with regard to course fees and admission form fees, among other issues. The five varsities are REST Self-finance University (Mumbai), DY Patil University (Talegaon), MIT University (Solapur), Ramdev Baba Self-Financed Private University (Nagpur), Vijaybhoomi University (Raigad).

The then Congress-NCP government had approved the “The Maharashtra Self Financed Universities (Establishment & Regulation) Bill” for the establishment of universities in the state on April 1, 2011. The Bill was, however, not accepted by the governor and was returned to the government. The bill has been approved Thursday by the state cabinet.

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After the bill was returned, the government decided to issue guidelines for the establishment of self-financed colleges on May 29, 2013. However, students complained that these colleges acted in an arbitrary manner after receiving sanctions, Waikar said in his letter.

Waikar had requested that the new universities be approved only after adherence to the instructions, until which the proposals should be kept on hold.