Improvements in Higher Education – IV

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An institutional institution begins with land. An adequate amount of land is necessary not just for the initial requirements of the institution but also for its future growth. Universities in particular can be long lasting institutions that can last for hundreds of years. Therefore even if a new university does not have much infrastructure to start with it has a potential to grow in future if it comes on adequate amount of land. Presently regulations exist that prescribe that a new university may be established on as little as thirty acres of land. This is on the low side. Such a university may begin its initial work on this much land but it has no future. It may be mentioned that it is also not possible to enhance activities by procuring land elsewhere in future since the land assets must be continuous. It is also not easy or economical to discard old buildings and move on to a new campus.

A more serious lacuna in the present regulations is that the land requirements are specified independent of the number of students the university may enroll. Both these requirements are linked and a new regulation is required specifying the maximum number of students that may be enrolled in an educational institution imparting higher education. Here are some suggestions that may be incorporated:

University: Maximum number of registered full time students in all its programs = 50 students per acre of campus size

Affiliated College offering programs in Sciences and/or Professional disciplines = 150 students per acre

Affiliated college offering education in arts i.e. non scientific and non professional disciplines = 250 students per acre

It is not necessary to make a distinction between urban and non-urban campuses for this regulation. These requirements have been specified keeping in mind the minimum requirements of facilities required to carry out the higher education programs. They are neither on the liberal side nor on the strict side. However they may be debated further before they are prescribed as a regulation. In the absence of such a regulation, the danger exists that some private educational institutes in the greed for collecting more fees may overcrowd their campuses resulting in a poor quality of education. It is already happening.

Whenever such a regulation comes into force, as it will have to sooner or later, existing educational institutions that exceed the quota may be asked to stop/restrict new admissions until the situation is corrected within four years.

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