INDIA: 27,000 institutes of higher learning needed

More than 27,000 additional institutions of higher learning would be required to meet the targeted gross enrolment ratio of 30% for 2020, India's Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said last weekend, reports Sindh Today. "This figure includes 14,000 colleges of general higher education, 12,775 additional technical and professional institutions and 269 additional universities," he told the Ministry's consultative committee.

Sibal asked MPs present at the meeting for their collaboration in education, so that India can become a world power by 2020. "Issues raised by the MPs included whether an adequate regulatory framework was being envisaged for private participation in the education sector. Whether the government was envisaging a ... large scale programme for the higher education sector, also whether foreign universities, if allowed to come to India would be making profit, and whether steps had been taken to incentivise people to enter the teaching profession," according to an official statement.
Full report on the Sindh Today site