*No concrete steps taken months after announcement
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Nov 25: Nearly nine months after the announcement to attract private investment into Jammu and Kashmir’s higher education sector, the Government has made little progress on the ground, raising concerns over the slow pace of implementation of a reform that was projected as a game-changer for youth aspirations, job creation and academic excellence.
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On March 7, 2025, the Government made an announcement that it will roll out a policy to attract private investment in the higher education and efforts will be made to encourage renowned private universities to establish satellite campuses in Jammu and Kashmir in order to create large-scale education and employment opportunities for the youth of the Union Territory.
The proposed policy, it was stated, would provide a structured framework to attract investment, introduce high-end professional courses, promote research and create thousands of direct and indirect employment opportunities.
However, even after the lapse of nearly nine months no serious efforts have been made to translate the commitment into a concrete action plan, official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “neither the draft of the policy has been prepared nor have any consultative meetings been held with top-ranking private universities that were expected to be approached at the earliest”.
“Even internal discussion on the subject has not been held although the Higher Education Department was expected to frame a comprehensive policy document covering land allotment mechanism, regulatory relaxations, incentives, academic collaboration guidelines and timelines”, sources informed.
Some senior officers in the Higher Education Department, while wishing anonymity, admitted that there has been no movement on engaging recognized private universities or developing a roadmap. “We have not received any instruction for starting an exercise towards translating much-hyped announcement into reality”, they added.
“For drafting the policy to attract private investment in the higher education sector at least a committee of officers of the Higher Education Department and Finance Department should have been constituted. But, nothing has happened so far”, they further said.
The delay has sparked discontent among educationists and students who were hopeful that renowned universities would be invited to explore the possibility of opening off-campus centres in J&K. “The Union Territory has long faced issues related to limited availability of specialised professional courses, low research output and absence of globally recognized academic brands. The entry of top private universities was expected to plug these gaps and reduce the outflow of students who migrate to other States of the country every year for higher studies”, educationists said.
“Every year, thousands of students leave J&K to pursue professional degrees outside and setting up of satellite campuses of reputed universities could have helped reverse this trend”, they said, adding “the proposed move was also seen as a catalyst for employment generation and economic diversification as establishing university campuses typically triggers growth in allied sectors including housing, transport, hospitality, retail, research services and start-up ecosystems”.
Official sources said, “the UT administration cannot afford prolonged delays in initiatives linked directly to youth empowerment and investment inflow. At a time when the Government is pushing industrial development, tourism promotion and entrepreneurship, revitalizing the higher education landscape through private participation was considered an essential parallel strategy”.
They informed that some top private universities had shown informal interest soon after the announcement but were awaiting official communication, policy clarity and detailed guidelines before taking any further step.
“The administration should expedite the process as prolonged delays could undermine the Government’s announcement’, they said, adding “unless the Government initiates immediate steps such as drafting the policy, conducting stakeholder consultations and inviting reputed institutions the ambitious vision of transforming J&K into an education and research hub may remain confined to the official documents”.
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