Minority varsity plan in land, fund troubles

A combination of land disputes and fund constraints is threatening to delay and potentially derail an ambitious minority affairs ministry plan to set up three minority universities that were aimed at improving higher education access to traditionally deprived Muslims. Salman Khurshid’s ministry has asked the HRD ministry to help implement the project after the plan to start the varsities on Wakf land ran into trouble, senior government officials have told HT.

But the HRD ministry is already stretched for funds with its higher education allocation for the XIth Five Year Plan distributed over the dozens of old and new institutions.

In the absence of funds, the HRD ministry is now mulling setting up centres of the Aligarh Muslim University instead of independent and new universities, a ministry official confirmed when approached.“With the minority affairs ministry asking us to take over the project, there is a thought that it may make more sense to set up centres of the AMU instead,” the source said.

AMU is already setting up three centres in Murshidabad, Mallapuram and Kishanganj. AMU degrees are likely to carry greater credibility than degrees offered by brand new universities.

Under the minority affairs ministry proposal, first mooted over two years back, the government would set up minority varsities in Rajasthan, Bihar and north Karnataka.

Minority institutions are guarded by the Constitution and Supreme Court judgments from government interference on administrative matters.

The proposal was a crucial component of the UPA’s plans to help uplift the educational standards of Muslims. The Justice Rajinder Sachar panel appointed by the PM had through its report revealed that less than four per cent of Muslims are graduates or diploma holders, as opposed to a national average of seven per cent.

But the plan has been dogged by lack of clarity over funding from the start, sources said. Central government universities are funded through the UGC. But the UGC and the HRD ministry had no funds allocated for this project by the time it was drafted.