The vision of making higher education institutions accessible to every rural pocket of India was UPA government's mantra. But over the years many of these colleges spread across the rural areas have failed to create a sustainable model for themselves.
Nearly thousand colleges in the country are on the verge of shutdown. These colleges say they are finding it tough to get students, some lack infrastructure, while others are short on funds, revealed HRD ministry. The ministry while compiling its annual data for higher education survey got to know this.
The vision of making higher education institutions accessible to every rural pocket of India was UPA government's mantra. But over the years many of these colleges spread across the rural areas have failed to create a sustainable model for themselves.
Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan top the chart of such institutions that are forced to shut down. The list comprises of engineering colleges, para medical, colleges of humanities, commerce and BEd colleges. "Private entities manage to pool in land to set up a building and create required infrastructure. But they lack funds to sustain, do not manage get trained and experienced faculty. They also fail to get enough number of students to continue with their operations," explained an official.
Failing to set up a commercial model for the institution and with the respective state government keeping a close eye on their fee structures, most of these colleges applying for a closure are less than 10-year-old.
To shut operations, these colleges report to the universities they are affiliated to. The universities then update the University Grant Commission. The UGC receives about 100 to 150 such updates from the
universities every year.
Experts, however, feel that it is not a worrying trend. "Shutting down of none performing institutions suggest that only the best in the competition will stay. Institutions that lack credibility and have failed to attract students will be forced to close down," said former UGC member MM Ansari.
The colleges that are on the verge of shutting down are now banking on skill development. They are hoping to use their physical infrastructure for starting skill development courses. "We have a building in place. But year on year, we failed to get the expected number of students. So we have applied for a closure. We will try to start a skill initiative,"said a functionary of an engineering college in Uttar Pradesh on the grounds of anonymity. The college does not plan to open admission for BTech this year.
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