Monday, January 10 2005 17:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Expressing its willingness to act, the Centre today (Jan 10, 2005) asked States to come to a consensus on the issue of enactment of a Legislation to frame uniform norms to govern admissions and fee structure in professional courses across the country.

Government considers such a Legislation essential and could take steps only after a consensus emerged among States which have been demanding it, Union Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh said inaugurating a two-day conference of Ministers of Education and Technical Education.

"Many Chief Ministers and Ministers of States have been demanding rightfully that a Central Legislation be enacted on admissions and fee structure in private professional colleges," he said.

Singh said India has become a hub in Asia in higher education and innovative ideas should enrich the sector further.

Referring to the two subjects of the conference -- establishment of private universities and the entry of foreign universities into the country -- he said the participation of private sector in higher and technical education can, for the bulk of population of the country, be only at the margins of a major involvement of the State.

However, he struck a note of caution saying, "the withdrawal of the State from higher education will not be in the interest of the country, nor indeed, of the private sector itself which will keep swinging between booms and bursts of activities, making it as uncertain as any other business."

Singh said the issues before the country were those of ensuring equity and access in higher and technical education, the regional balance in the spread of educational institutions, mobilising resources for higher education and breaking the insularity of this sector from newer ideas.

The questions of private and foreign universities, fees and admissions are to be considered and discussed in the backdrop of these larger issues, he suggested.

"We must remember that in the field of education, it is not possible to work out only technical solutions, as education is part of wider political economy and initiatives in education are possible within this political economy as a whole and only in consistence with this."

Any departure from this would be totally counter productive, Singh warned.

He pleaded with the delegates to keep the tone and tenor of the deliberations less polemical and more purposive and added there was no need to vote out any idea without due consideration.

The growth of higher and technical education has been very impressive and has many positives in the country, Singh said.

At the same time, it has brought to fore the issues of proper regulation, admissions and fees, which encourage investment and entrepreneurship without making education an area of crude commercial sharp practices, he said.

He underlined the need to strengthen institutions of the State so that they could set standards without reference to any questions of financing of education.