Two educational institutes have shown interest to open private universities in the State. The Uttarakhand Government had recently relaxed the norms for the private players to open universities in the mountainous parts of the State.
If the State Government gives its final approval to the proposals then these universities would be set up at Kotdwar in Pauri district and Bhawali in Nainital district. The University at Kotdwar would be named as Bhagwant global University while the one at Bhawali would be named Mount Valley University. The Higher Education Director Jagdish Prasad told The Pioneer that the proposal of these universities is being forwarded to a high level committee headed by Chief Secretary for approval.
It is learnt that the higher education department in its preliminary report has found the proposal of these universities as per the norms and in has given its consent for establishing them. Prasad said that these Universities once established would give a boost to the overall development of the mountainous areas. He said that there is a need to impart employment oriented education in the hilly regions of the state so that large scale migration from these areas is kept under check.
It is worth mentioning here that the state government released its new and amended policy on higher education in the month of September last year. In the new policy the norms for setting up university in the mountainous areas of the state were relaxed considerably.
The government has proposed to supply power and water free of cost to these universities for initial five years. The earlier norm of a minimum constructed area of 15000 square meters is reduced substantially to 2500 square meters only. The government would also give road connectivity and electricity connections to these educational institutes. However probably due to lack of proper publicity and fear of low profit margins, the private players have so far refrained from showing interest in the setting up educational institutes in the mountainous areas of state.