Legislation for setting up 2 more pvt varsities

The State legislature will have to pass separate pieces of legislations to provide statutory status to two private universities –– Manipal University and Arka University –– which were cleared by the State Cabinet on Thursday.

Manipal University is promoted and owned by Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) and will come up in Doddaballapur. To start with, the university will offer engineering and management courses.

Arka is promoted by the Jain Group of Institutions and will come up on a 50-acre campus at Jakkasandra on Kanakapura Road.

The university will offer courses in social sciences and design.

“With the Cabinet clearing the universities, two separate enactments will have to be legislated. It is yet to be decided whether the bills will be tabled in the current legislature session. We will take a call on the same in a day or two,” Higher Education Principal Secretary Siddaiah said.

Already, there are two private varsities in the State- Azim Premji University and Alliance University.

Many institutions

With more and more groups of educational institutions coming forward to establish private universities, the State government is planning to draft common guidelines for maintenance of standards of teaching, research, examination and extension services in the universities.

Sources said the rules would stipulate that each university should have a minimum of 25 acre land, provide reservation to the socially deprived, follow State government norms while employing 50 per cent of the faculty besides the deposit Rs 15 crore ‘endowment fund’ with the government.