It is the presentation of proposal I made as per my research topic which is Privatisation of Higher Education: A case Study of Bhubaneswar.

1. Privatisation in Higher Education- A Case
Study of Bhubaneswar, Odisha

2. Introduction:
 Higher education: the education, which is obtained after
completing 12 years of schooling or equivalent and is of
the duration of at least nine months (full time) or after
completing 10 years of schooling and is of the duration of
at least 3 years. The education may be of the nature of
General, Vocational, Professional or Technical education
 In today’s information societies, knowledge drives
economic growth and development. Higher education is
the main source of that knowledge – its production,
dissemination and its absorption by any society.
 Higher Education Institutions are a major source for
providing the human capital required for knowledge
production.

3. Privatisation of Higher Education:
 Privatisation in education sector can be defined as the
"transfer of assets, management, functions or
responsibilities [relating to education] previously owned or
carried out by the State to private actors.
 substantial growth of private players in Higher Education
is seen since last two to three decades
 Most of the State Governments in India have encouraged
the growth of private technical institutions and Universities
to provide quality higher education in a greater way.
 So this research aims on finding the reason of increasing
participation of private providers over last two decades.

4. Problem Statement:
 Today a new crop of institutions of higher learning has
come up to fill in the gap in capacity creation and most of
them are for profit.
 According to estimates, these institutions account for
nearly one third of all institutions of higher learning
(Hashim, 2008). Since last two to three decades their
numbers have increased unprecedentedly.
 Hence it is the need of the hour to understand the extent
of privatization especially in the Higher Education.

5. Research questions:
In spite of having government colleges at low price of
tuition fees and other facilities, still private sector is
growing in higher education field with unprecedented
rate since the past two decades. Why?
 Is it a question of status in today’s world?
 Is it because Parents and Students find it easy to get
admission in Private Colleges as compared to
Government Colleges?
 Is it because of the standards of government colleges
declining day by day or is it because the standards of
private colleges increasing day by day?
 Or is it because of the different educational
environment that these private colleges create for
their students?

6. Rationale:
 Today, the growing commercialization has many reasons.
These reasons include socio-economic policies adopted by the
successive union governments, particularly since mid-eighties,
the ideological commitments of the ruling class, proactive role
of the judiciary, vested interest of the business houses, the
failure of the State funded education system due to gradual
withdrawal of the State in responding to the needs and
requirements of the people and growing choice of the elite,
neo-rich and affluent sections for the private sector institutions
both local and foreign.
 By privatising the higher education, it would lead to the
access of higher education to a certain section of the
society because of high tuition fees. And that should not
happen. Largely it is a national concern as higher
education is very much necessary and plays an important
role in skill building.

7.  Hence, there is a need to study this phenomenon of
privatisation especially the reason of this privatisation.
 There has been study regarding the commercialisation.
But there have been very less studies concerning why
privatisation and commercialisation happening.
Specifically this is true when it comes to understand it
from the point of view from the people. This research is an
attempt to bring this gap in the academic literature.

8. Aims and Objectives
The research would mainly focus to understand the
process of privatisation of higher education through
a case study of Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
 Finding out the extent to which people are going to
private colleges and govt colleges
 The reasons behind the choices people make
regarding private and government colleges
 To understand the reasons at the structural and
policy level which have led to increasing
privatisation in Higher Education.

9. Literature Review:
 Starting with 1950-51, there were only 263000 students in
all disciplines in 750 colleges affiliated to 30 universities in
India.
 This has grown by 2012 to 20 million students in 35539
colleges affiliated to 700 universities making India’s
system of higher education the third largest in the world in
terms of enrolment and the largest in terms of number of
institutions.
 The withdrawal of government from providing financial
support to university system suggested these institutions
to become self supporting institutions. This action of
government led to the emergence of new phenomenon of
privatisation.

10.  It is justified that due to the privatization number of private
professional institutes has increased. It is no doubt required to
cope up with growing needs but this has been at the cost of
quality. Government has given too much independence to
these private institutes which would lead to the
commercialization of education. This would give rise to many
problems like hike in students’ fees, capitation fee, exploitation
of professors etc. A steep hike in fees does not make higher
education accessible, equitable and affordable to all.
 Some positive effects of privatization are also noted. Private
colleges are almost independent of political interventions.
According to Honorable Supreme Court, unaided professional
institutes are autonomous in their administration and decisions.
But they have to follow necessary guidelines notified by
regulating agencies regarding admission, examination,
recruitment of staff etc. Better quality higher education can also
be provided by private sector.

11. Methodology:
 The research would be done in Bhubaneswar in few different
colleges i.e. some private and some govt colleges. The sample
selected is the batch of class 12 of Kendriya Vidyalaya No 1
(2nd Shift) who passed out in 2012 and continuing their
graduation in various government and private colleges and
along with those students, faculties of the govt and private
colleges in which they are studying and the parents of these
students.
 Methods to be used: Survey
Interview
Case Study
Focused Group Discussion
 Sample Size: 40 undergraduate students, 10 parents and 10
teachers

12. References:
 Balakrishnan, P. (2007), Higher Education in India: Will Six
Percent Do It, Economic and Political Weekly, Sep 29 – Oct 5
2007, Vol. 42, No. 39, pp. 3930-3934
 Chattopadhyay, S. (2009), The Market in Higher Education:
Concern for Equity and Quality, Economic and Political Weekly,
July 18-24 2009, Vol. 44, No. 29, pp. 53-61
 Choudaha, R. (2013),
http://www.dreducation.com/2013/08/data-statistics-india-student-
college.html (last accessed on 5th Oct 2014 )
 Hashim, S.R, (2008), State of Higher Education in India, India
Development Report 2008, Oxford University Press
 Indian Standard Classification of Education, (2014) Ministry of
Human Resource Development, Department of Higher
Education, Government of India

13. References Contd.
 Malhotra, S.P. (2003), Business Behaviour in Indian
Higher Education System and its Impact on Equality,
Globalisation and Challenges for Education, Shipra
Publication
 Mathew, E.T. (1996), Financial Aspect of Privatisation of
Higher Education: Issues and Options, Economic and
Political Weekly, 6 April 1996, Vol. 31, pp. 866-869
 Pinto, A. (2004), Higher Education, Ideology and Politics,
Books for Change
 Sharma, V. (2005), Commercialisation of Higher
Education in India, Social Scientist, Debating Education
(Sep – Oct 2005), Vol. 33, No. 9/10, pp. 65-74
 http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/10th/v
olume2/v2_ch2_5.pdf (last accessed on 5th Oct 2014)

14. THANK YOU…