The Uttarakhand Cabinet led by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has approved changes to the policy and standards for establishing private universities in the state, making the process easier, particularly in mountainous areas.
Under the revised norms, a private university in the hill regions will need a minimum built-up area of 2,500 square metres. In the plains, the minimum built-up area has been fixed at 20,000 square metres. The government said the shift from land-based requirements to built-up area norms takes into account the geographical conditions of the state’s mountainous regions.
Under the earlier system, institutions seeking to establish a university in the hills were required to have 2.5 acres of land within a five-kilometre radius, with the land allowed across a maximum of three locations. In the plains, the requirement was 10 acres of land. The Cabinet has now decided to make built-up area the basis for these requirements instead of the specified land area.
The Cabinet has also approved changes in the financial requirements for private universities. The earlier provisions relating to a permanent endowment fund of ₹3 crore for hill areas and ₹5 crore for plain areas have been removed. Similarly, the requirement to maintain a minimum bank balance of ₹2 crore in the hills and ₹20 crore in the plains has also been discontinued.
Along with these changes, the government will introduce defined quality assessment standards for proposals submitted by institutions seeking to establish private universities. The proposals will be evaluated against these prescribed quality parameters before approval.
The revised framework is expected to make university proposals more practical in mountainous areas while retaining a quality-based evaluation mechanism for new private institutions.
