The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pulled up the Himachal Pradesh Government for plight and lapses in private universities.

In a report recently tabled in the HP Assembly for the year ended on 31 March, 2017 the CAG pointed out that the state government had not devised any policy for ensuring need-based establishment of private universities in the state.

17 private universities had been established of which 10 were located in one district (Solan) alone (four in one gram panchyat) which indicates that the regional needs or priorities were not considered, maintains the report.

Solan district alone has 10 private universities, while two in district Kangra and one each in Shimla, Mandi, Hamirpur, Una and Sirmaur.

CAG further points out that there was significant shortage of faculty in the private universities, particularly in the Professor (38 %) and Associate Professor (61 %) levels and the 15 private universities were functioning in the state with faculty not possessing minimum qualifications especially in the Professor (22 percent) and Associate Professor (28 percent) levels, maintains the report.

Furthermore out of the 17 private universities only three had obtained accreditation from National Assessment and Accreditation Council as of March 2017.

It was observed that there were very low enrolment levels in some private universities.

These 17 private universities had been established between May 2002 and April 2014 through separate Acts of the state Legislature.

In addition to this, significant lapses were observed in adherence to the procedure prescribed and Regulatory Commission, established for the regulation of the private institutions of higher education, was handicapped by the shortage of funds, manpower and absence of a dedicated cadre of inspecting officers resulting in large shortfalls in inspections.

Lack of a proper reporting mechanism only exacerbated the gap in regulation, thus courses in private universities were being approved without inspections, and some private universities were running courses without seeking approval of the Regulatory Commission, pointed out CAG.

Furthermore, in the absence of detailed guidelines for determining the fee structure, there was a large variation in the fees being charged by private universities, and some cases of fees being hiked substantially were also observed.

The report states that in some cases, approval for fee structure had not been sought, and cases of unauthorised collection of development charges, in violation of a court order, also came to light.

The system of examinations in private universities was not robust as examinations were being conducted internally.