Published Sep 16, 2026 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Sep 16, 2026 | 9:00 AM
The government wants an ecosystem that retains students, attracts reputable institutions & strengthens higher education. (Representational pic/iStock)
Synopsis: Keralam’s UDF government is weighing the option of introducing a revised private universities Bill during the October Assembly session, after finding the 2025 legislation’s ₹25-crore corpus and land requirements too restrictive to attract credible institutions. The proposed rewrite aims to create a more flexible, investment-friendly framework while aligning private universities with the UDF government’s broader Kerala Knowledge Valley vision.
Keralam’s experiment with private universities is heading back to the drawing board.
The UDF government is weighing the unusual option of recalling the Kerala State Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) Bill, 2025, from the President to replace it with revised legislation.
The move comes amid concerns that certain conditions in the Bill could prove too restrictive for institutions the state now wants to attract. The Bill was passed during the previous LDF rule.
The government’s rethink centres on the Bill’s ₹25-crore corpus requirement and land norms, which the UDF government believes could deter serious investors from investing in a state with scarce and expensive land. The government also wants the revised framework to fit into its broader higher-education agenda, including the Kerala Knowledge Valley project announced in the Revised Budget 2026-27.
The legislative uncertainty began after the Governor referred the Bill to the President in September 2025. The referral came at a politically sensitive stage for the LDF government, which was then in the final year of its second term and had identified private universities as one of its major higher-education reforms.
The LDF government maintained that it had carefully examined the legislation and brought it into conformity with University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations before passing it. The referral, however, effectively put the proposed reform in limbo.
The change of government after the 2026 Assembly election has now opened another route. Instead of waiting on the pending legislation, the UDF government is examining whether it can have the Bill recalled and introduce a fresh one with provisions it considers more workable.
The political irony is hard to miss. The LDF, which had strongly opposed private universities for years, eventually brought in legislation to allow them in Keralam. The UDF, which supported the Bill in principle while in Opposition, is now looking to rewrite the legislation to make the policy more attractive and workable.
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The 2025 legislation represented a major departure from Keralam’s traditional approach to higher education.
For decades, the state had maintained a predominantly public and aided higher-education system, even as self-financing colleges expanded rapidly.
Successive governments had been cautious about allowing private universities, with concerns ranging from the commercialisation of education and social inequality to the possible weakening of public institutions.
The Left had particularly been vocal in opposing unrestricted private participation in higher education.
In 2015, the then Oommen Chandy-led UDF government had explored opening Keralam’s higher-education sector to private universities, triggering fierce opposition from the Left.
The Kerala State Higher Education Council (KSHEC) then had submitted a report to then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Education Minister PK Abdu Rabb, recommending the establishment of private universities in the state. The proposal followed the Chief Minister’s decision to constitute a committee under the KSHEC to examine the feasibility of introducing private universities in Keralam.
The Left, then in Opposition, launched a sustained campaign against the move, strongly objecting to the entry of private universities on grounds including the possible commercialisation of higher education and its impact on the state’s public education system.
A historic reversal came in 2025.
In February 2025, a special Cabinet meeting convened by the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left government approved the Kerala State Private Universities (Establishment and Control) Bill, 2025, which sets out a statutory framework for establishing and regulating private universities.
The Assembly later took up the proposal and passed it in March after an unusually elaborate legislative exercise. The Bill was debated for three days and attracted nearly 1,400 amendments.
The legislation sought to balance private investment and government oversight. It envisaged private universities as multi-disciplinary institutions within the state, while allowing— subject to University Grants Commission and other regulatory requirements — off-campus centres, offshore campuses and study centres outside the state and country.
The Bill also contained several provisions intended to ensure that private universities did not become purely commercial enterprises.
These included social safeguards, such as reserving 40% of seats for students from Keralam, adhering to the state’s reservation policy, and providing scholarships and fee concessions, including mandatory support for SC/ST students.
The legislation also provided for government involvement in university governance and included mechanisms relating to the rights of students, teachers and non-teaching staff. It also envisaged a two-tier grievance redressal system.
The then government argued that these safeguards were necessary to ensure that private universities served a wider public purpose and did not operate merely as high-fee institutions.
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The decision to move towards private universities faced opposition even within the Left camp.
TP Sreenivasan after being attacked by an SFI activist in 2016. (Supplied)
The CPI, the second-largest LDF constituent, opposed the proposal at the Cabinet stage, warning that the move could spark protests and raise concerns about the commercialisation of education.
The shift was particularly striking given the Left’s earlier resistance to private and foreign participation in higher education.
The controversy had already acquired a political history.
In January 2016, former diplomat TP Sreenivasan, then Vice Chairman of the Kerala State Higher Education Council, was assaulted by an SFI activist during protests against the Global Education Meet in Thiruvananthapuram.
Sreenivasan arrived at the venue of the two-day meet organised by the Higher Education Council when a protester slapped him from behind. He fell following the impact.
The SFI had opposed the event, alleging that the meet was part of an effort to facilitate the entry of foreign universities into Kerala.
Almost a decade later, the LDF government itself initiated moves to provide a statutory route for private universities.
Yet passing the Bill did not mean all political differences over the model had disappeared.
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The then Leader of the Opposition, VD Satheesan, was cautious during the Assembly debate.
The UDF, he made clear, did not oppose private universities in principle. But it had serious reservations about the Bill’s provisions and whether they were suited to the state’s circumstances.
The condition of existing public and aided institutions was a principal concern.
Keralam already had a large network of universities, government colleges, aided colleges and self-financing institutions. Several institutions faced difficulties filling seats, while some unaided colleges had even been forced to close.
In that context, Satheesan warned that a sudden expansion of private universities could intensify competition for students and further weaken institutions already struggling.
The possibility of private universities establishing off-campus centres also raised concerns that students and resources could be drawn away from existing institutions.
The UDF had therefore argued that the policy should not be designed to increase the number of institutions. It should be designed around the quality, credibility and long-term viability of those institutions.
Satheesan also suggested that established educational agencies with decades of experience should receive greater consideration.
This was particularly relevant to the financial and land conditions contained in the Bill.
The ₹25-crore corpus requirement, for instance, was seen as a potentially unnecessary barrier for institutions that already had substantial experience and infrastructure in the education sector.
The 10-acre land requirement was another issue.
In Keralam, where land is scarce and expensive, particularly around major cities and established educational centres, insisting on large contiguous parcels could make establishing new universities difficult.
Those concerns are now shaping the UDF government’s policy approach.
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The proposed new legislation, likely to be presented in the session being convened in October, is expected to revisit the entry conditions for private universities.
The ₹25-crore corpus or endowment requirement is among the provisions being examined. The government appears to view financial viability and institutional credibility as not necessarily requiring a uniform entry threshold that could exclude otherwise serious players.
Land requirements are also being reconsidered.
The issue is particularly relevant in the context of multi-campus institutions and the requirement for a 10-acre campus or headquarters. The government believes the rules should reflect the realities of Keralam’s land market and the different models through which modern universities operate.
The proposed relaxation does not necessarily mean an absence of safeguards.
The emerging approach is to distinguish between unnecessary entry barriers and essential regulatory conditions. Financial sustainability, academic standards, infrastructure, accreditation, and compliance with UGC regulations would remain important.
The government’s challenge will be to make the legislation more attractive to investors without creating a system in which financial capacity alone determines access to higher education.
The new Bill is also expected to revisit provisions on reservation, fee concessions, and scholarships.
The 2025 legislation had adopted unusually specific social obligations, including a 40% reservation for permanent Keralam residents and provisions for scholarships and fee waivers.
Those provisions were intended to ensure that private universities remained accessible to students from the state and disadvantaged sections.
The UDF government is examining whether such obligations should continue in their existing statutory form or be redesigned through broader state policies and other regulatory mechanisms.
This is likely to become one of the most contentious aspects of the proposed rewrite.
The provisions dealing with campuses and affiliated institutions are another area where changes are expected.
The original Bill allowed private universities to function as multidisciplinary institutions and permitted off-campus centres, offshore campuses, and study centres, subject to UGC and other regulatory requirements.
The legislation, as finally passed, also sought to ensure that private universities functioned as unitary institutions rather than becoming large affiliating universities with a network of colleges.
The UDF government is examining these provisions in light of UGC regulations and the practical requirements of the proposed Knowledge Valley.
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Meanwhile, the UDF government also want a fresh legislation, with the proposed law expected to form part of the legal architecture for its ambitious Kerala Knowledge Valley project.
The Knowledge Valley, announced in the Revised Budget 2026-27, aims to make Keralam a global higher-education hub by bringing together reputed foreign universities, premier Indian institutions, research parks, and centres of excellence.
The government believes the existing Bill, particularly its corpus and land requirements, may not provide the flexibility needed to attract such institutions.
The proposed legislation is expected to make private universities more investment-friendly and align their establishment and expansion with the broader Knowledge Valley ecosystem.
Then, Chief Minister Satheesan had indicated in the Budget that a specialised legislative framework would back the initiative. That amendments to the private-university law would be taken up on a war footing.
According to Higher Education Minister Roji M John, the UDF government is not opposed to private universities in principle, but believes the existing legislation needs to be revisited to remove provisions that could discourage credible institutions from setting up in Keralam.
He has pointed to the growing number of students leaving the state for higher studies, arguing that Keralam cannot afford to remain merely a source of students for universities in other states and abroad.
The government, he said, needs to create an academic ecosystem that can retain students, attract institutions of repute, and strengthen research and higher-education opportunities within the state.
The proposed changes to the private universities law are being considered in this larger context, with the government seeking to make Keralam a more attractive destination for higher education while ensuring that quality and regulatory safeguards are not compromised.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
