In an attempt to improve infrastructural facilities in government colleges the Uttarakhand government is planning to rope in private universities. The government wishes that at least one Government College should be adopted by every university .
The state minister of Higher education, Dhan Singh Rawat said that a meeting of all private universities would be called soon to discuss the issue. He said that every private university functioning in the state should adopt at least one government college. Rawat suggested that these universities should set aside five percent of their profit for development of government colleges. He accepted that lack of funds acts as a hindrance in infrastructural and other developments in the government colleges and the state needs at least Rs 1000 Crores for upgrading infrastructure of the colleges.
He said that the state government is committed to improve the academic environment in the colleges and the Uttarakhand would be the first state in the country which will have an academic calendar for its institutions of higher education.
The calendar would be released on 25 June, in it 180 days of class room teaching has been made mandatory, he said.
The move of the state government to rope in private universities in development of government colleges is interesting as there are scores of private universities and deemed universities which are operating in the state.
In Uttarakhand there are 100 government colleges; an estimated 96000 students are enrolled in these colleges.
In last few years indiscriminate opening of new colleges by politicians has resulted in a situation where many degree colleges are running in very small rented buildings.
The departmental data shows that only 48 Government colleges out of 100 are having their own building. There are as many as 17 such colleges in the state which do not have any land allotted to them and construction work of 26 college buildings is currently in progress.