Govt explores ways to promote investment in higher education

The state government has said in its education policy that “it is necessary to explore the possibilities of private funding” considering that it is “untenable” that the new education policy drawn by the Union government can be wholly implemented with support from the state government given the “present financial constraints”.

The state has not denied the role of the government in financing the “milestones of the new education policy”.

“The government has to play the primary role of financier and the private sector can play second fiddle,” the policy says.

The policy enumerates two ways through which private funding can be encouraged.

“The state has adopted a well-formulated policy to promote private investment in the higher education sector. Presently, there are 11 private universities in the state. Some state-aided universities have already started collaborating with private universities to promote joint teaching and research programmes,” says the policy.

The state education policy, which varies with the National Education Policy 2020 in several areas, was notified on Saturday.

The policy speaks on exploring private funding in a chapter called “Financing of education”.

It says there are two broad ways in which private funds can supplement public resources in the education sector.

“First, grants from corporate houses, philanthropic institutions or individuals can enhance the financial capacity of the education sector. Usually, these are untied grants with few conditionalities attached with them,” the policy says.

“The other type of funding is based on mutual benefits. The most common examples are corporate fundings of scientific research which may lead to technological improvement of the donor in the long run.”

According to the policy, yet another flow of funding can come from the students themselves through self-financed courses.

“Students shall be willing to bear the financial burden of a course, partly or fully, if they perceive that their employability will significantly improve by completing the course,” the policy mentions.

An official of the state education department said the implementation of the new education policy requires, among other things, solid financing because the infrastructure has to be overhauled for the four-year undergraduate curriculum in state-aided colleges and universities.

Earlier, the undergraduate programme was a three-year course.

A college principal said the four-year programme mandates that students who secure 75 per cent in the first six semesters and wish to undertake research at the undergraduate level can choose to research in the fourth year.

The UGC’s regulation says: “The departments offering a four-year UG degree (honours with research) must have required infrastructure such as computer lab and software, laboratory facilities to carry out experimental research, and at least two permanent faculty members who are recognised as PhD supervisors.”

Since the count of students will increase, this will necessitate the creation of additional classrooms.

Creating facilities for each college and university is an expensive proposition and the state government is not in a position to bear all the expenses. Therefore, private funding is being encouraged, said an official of the education department.

Education minister Bratya Basu had told Metro on March 17, after the education department wrote to the universities to take appropriate steps for the launch
of the four-year undergraduate programme: “Our issue
with UGC had been to provide suitable funds support to ensure its implementation by all higher education institutions as it may require physical/human resource upgradation....”

Avik Majumdar, the chairperson of a committee that drafted the state policy, told this newspaper: “We have suggested private funding as state funding may not be adequate to bear the cost burden....”