PROPHE Summary:
India's Supreme Court has ordered each state to review private institutions'
tuition to forbid "profiteering." The Court's ruling mainly
results from the for-profit orientation of many Indian private institutions-and
their questionable quality. The fast private growth of Indian higher
education due to the increasing demand for access has resulted in the
sale of seats in many private institutions. Thus, the court ordered
to scrutinize tuition to ensure reasonable rates. However, the court
sustained an earlier decision that private institutions could reserve
a certain number of seats to admit students according to religion and
language based quotas, and charge extra fees from those students, and
the court also permitted more such seats in private institutions. Some
education reformers said this is a contradictory judgment because it
offers more opportunities for profiteering.
For the full story see the Chronicle of Higher Education, August
18, 2003. "India's Supreme Court Cracks Down on 'Profiteering'
in Higher Education," by Martha Ann Overland.
PROPHE Observation:
India faces an intense political struggle over the status and future
of private higher education and this struggle has spilled over into
the courts. Conflicts that remain more unofficial or implicit in some
other countries have thus taken on a visible and legal character in
the world's largest democracy. Moreover, reflecting decentralized features
of that democracy, different branches of government and different levels
(federal and state) are weighing in-often with contradictory voices.
A major dispute in concept as well as law is what constitutes illegitimate
"for-profit" as opposed to legitimate "nonprofit"
activity. This is a dispute that is caustic and unresolved in many countries.
