State bans off-campus study centres

After dragging its feet on the mushrooming of “teaching shops” in the form of off-campus centres and study centres of the state universities for several years, the state government has finally cracked the whip on them by banning them.
In a development that would go a long way in checking the commercialisation of higher education, the recent monsoon session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha has passed four Bills amending the State University Acts to ban the off-campus centres and study centres inside and outside the state. The Haryana Private Universities Act, 2006, had already been amended to ban the setting up of off-campus study centres by the private universities.
The Bills were passed following directions from the UGC. Among the Bills passed were the MDU (Second Amendment) Bill, 2012; the Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Viswavidyalaya, Khanpur Kalan (Second Amendment) Bill, 2012; the KU (Second Amendment) Bill, 2012, and the Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, (Second Amendment) Bill, 2012.
Sources said the UGC had asked the state government to “take suitable steps for amending the existing Acts to bring these in conformity with the observations made by the Supreme Court.” Similarly, the UGC had also asked the state government to make statutory provisions to ensure that the private and state universities did not operate beyond its territorial jurisdiction in the form of off-campus centres, study centres, affiliate colleges and centres operating through franchisees.
However, the amendments will not be applicable to postgraduate regional centres. If the university had well-maintained postgraduate regional centres with all requisite infrastructure, these will continue to be administered by the university.