Telangana: Private engineering colleges in race for varsity upgrade

Hyderabad: While there is speculation of corporate houses like Reliance, Cyient and Mahindras are keen on foraying into education sector by setting up private universities, local colleges seem to be eyeing this opportunity too. 

CVSR (Anurag Institutions), Sreenidhi, Guru Nanak, Malla Reddy, CBIT and others may throw their hat into the ring once there is some clarity on the new Private Universities Policy of Telangana government.

“Conditions like the extent of the land being 50 acres and a corpus fund of '50 crore can be easily fulfilled. Other conditions will be known only after the Act is passed and government issues a notification inviting applications for setting up private varsities,” a senior administrator from one of the colleges said.

Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, government whip in the Legislative Council and chairman of the Anurag Group of Institutions, says, “There is nothing wrong if reputed engineering colleges seek the upgradation to private university status. However, they should be able to live up to the standards set by existing private players like BITS Pilani (Shamirpet), Gitam, ICFAI (deemed universities) or VIT, SRM and Amity (private varsities). They are on firm footing. To compete with them and create confidence among students and parents and to get admissions is not an easy task.” 

Mr Reddy adds that only institutions that are sure they can face the challenge should test their luck.

Srinivas Acharya, National Board Member of Association of Indian Management Schools, says there are two sides to the private universities story.

“In Tamil Nadu, private universities have successfully gained the confidence of students, parents and stakeholders. However, in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttarakhand not many could make a mark. Not everything is rosy for private varsities and they too have a task on hand,” he said.