GV pleads for deregulation

Updated on: Tuesday, December 27, 2011

While we accept the argument that capitation fee should be abolished in the country, at the same time, the government should allow higher education institutions to fix their own fees structure, Dr G. Viswanathan, chancellor, VIT University said in the course of an interaction with reporters at Deccan Chronicle on Monday. By this method, he said students would be able to judge which institution they would go to based on their assessment of quality and amount of fees.

Citing the example of the government spending Rs 6 lakh, Rs 4 lakh and Rs. 2 lakh on each student at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), National Institute of Technology (NIT) and government engineering colleges respectively, Dr Viswanathan said the cost is a clear indication of why private institutions struggle to run their colleges with the minimum fees fixed by the government.

“It is only in this country that the government fixes the fees structure for higher education institutions. In countries like USA, colleges and universities are given the freedom to fix their own fees structure”, he said.
Dr Viswanathan noted that one reason why private institutions and universities were forced to collect capitation fee was that they had to pay bribes from taluk to the national capital level.

“If you have more regulations you will have more corruption. We need to pay bribes for starting an institution, to increase intake and to get courses approved by the government. How then can you expect an institution survive with the minimum fees structure?” he asked.

Elaborating on the fully flexible credit system followed at VIT, Dr Viswanathan said that the system allows students to select subjects of their choice instead of the rigid education system followed by colleges affiliated to government universities.

Lamenting that only some countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangaladesh follow affiliation system in higher education, Dr Viswanathan said that the system does not allow flexibility in higher education. “United Kingdom which started the affiliation system had changed to non-affiliation system but we have stuck to it for a long time now. The time has come for us to change”, he added.

Dr Viswanathan also added that only 12 per cent of youth in India had access to higher education whereas the world average stood at 27 per cent. “To increase the gross enrolment ratio (GER) from the present 12 per cent to at least 20 per cent we need to create more universities, which is possible only by starting 1,500 new universities”, he pointed out.

GV pleads for deregulation

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