| | 8 August 2018HIGHERReviewIN MY VIEWPRIVATIZATION OF HIGHER TECHNICAL EDUCATION: OPPORTUNITY AND CONCERNSBy Prof. Prem Vrat, Pro-Chancellor, Professor of Eminence & Chief Mentor, The NorthCap University, GurugramPrivatization of higher technical education picked up momentum after 1987, when AICTE became statutory authority for regulating technical ed-ucation in the country. Since then, private equi-ty participation in setting new technical institutions has grown exponentially through, State technical universities as affiliating body for the purpose of admission, curriculum design, examinations and evaluation for results. Though it grew in quantitative terms; but by and large, this growth has been under-managed and over-controlled. Misplaced priority of the private edupreneurs and myopic percep-tions have not allowed them to tap its true potential and current perception of low quality and employability of engineering graduates has further eroded the brand-equi-ty of engineering education as compared to what it used to be.In addition, a large number of state private universities created after 2005 have added to a new stream of technical institutions, which have made use of their autonomy to take quick decisions in the academic domain and governance of the university. However, again due to the high focus on numbers, physical infrastructure and low focus on talented faculty being attracted, motivated and retained, there are huge imbalances created due to knee-jerk responses to the market dynamics. Unless we introspect and do course cor-rection, it may become a missed opportunity.Market forces have anyway started impacting these institutions and many are either closed or are struggling to find adequate enrolments even with diluted quality of intake. However, the so-called market forces are also my-opic with their own short-term knee-jerk responses to placements in a particular branch and are more governed by the "follow the crowd mentality" with almost everyone An outstanding academician, Prof. Prem Vrat, is the Pro-Chancellor; Professor of Eminence and Chief Mentor at The NorthCap University, Gurugram (formerly ITM University, Gurugram). He has extensive experience of more than 50 years in teaching, research, management development, and consultancy. He has guided 41 Ph.D. theses, 118 M.Tech and 65 B.Tech major projects on Industrial Application of Systems Approach and Management Science and has published more than 455 research papers in reputed journals and proceedings of international and national conferences.Prof. Prem Vrat
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