SFI urge govt to stop grants to deemed universities

01 September 2009

Ritabrata Banerjee, national general secretary of the Students Federation of India (SFI), has alleged that deemed universities in the country are commercialising education.

Mr. Banerjee, who was here to take part in a camp for SFI members, told presspersons on Sunday that deemed universities had become business centres and did not cater for the educational needs of the poor. Chhattisgarh had become the hub of deemed universities, he said and added that the grants to these universities should be stopped, as recommended by the Yash Pal Committee.

He sought implementation of the committee’s recent report on improving higher education (the committee had recommended, among other things, abolition of the deemed university concept and conversion of a few deserving deemed universities into full-fledged ones).

Only nine per cent of Indians pursued higher education whereas the global average was 20 per cent. Even in Africa, the rate was 20 per cent he pointed out and demanded that the Centre earmark six per cent of budgetary allocations for education.

souce mangalorean.com