Bhushan Patwardhan

The criteria for establishing private universities in Maharashtra, and the policy framework that governs them, need review. NEP 2020 envisions a university as an institution that builds knowledge and skills together, delivers quality teaching and active research, encourages innovation, and keeps the student at its centre. Such a university shapes personality, character, and ethical conduct alongside academic ability. This review examines the historical background, philosophy, rationale, and need for reform in the establishment and regulation of private universities.Private university numbers nationally have grown more than sixfold in a decade and a half, and Maharashtra, which had none in 2010, now has 42. Demand keeps rising, and how to meet it is an open question. Two episodes show what happens when growth outruns oversight. Chhattisgarh licensed 112 private universities within two years under its 2002 Act. Deemed university status surged nationally after 2000, reaching about 130 institutions by 2009, and the Tandon Committee then reviewed them. A consistent line of Supreme Court judgments has established the constitutional balance every State law must respect: institutional autonomy, bounded by the public purpose education serves.This paper addresses basic questions about what a private university is and why any particular one should exist, finding no settled functional definition in Indian law. A regulatory framework must balance rigidity and flexibility, and the paper weighs the strengths and gaps of Maharashtra’s 2023 Act and Rules against that standard. Recent developments in Punjab raise a further question about wholly digital universities. A mechanism follows in three parts: the structure a private university should take, six possible tracks to establish it, and the safeguards needed once it is operating. All six tracks rest on the same not-for-profit standard. The safeguards cover academic quality, access, grievance redress, contribution to the State, the primacy of public good in the use of surplus, and the measurement of performance after establishment through structured public disclosure. With its regulatory history and philanthropic tradition, Maharashtra is well placed to serve as a model for other States, and eventually the Centre. The paper closes with a view of where higher education is heading and of what an ideal private university would look like. The paper makes no recommendations. It is offered for wider consultation, and responses from academia, institutions, and the public are welcome.