At a time when the Centre is keen to open up the education sector and mulling over legislation to rope in foreign players in the education sector, UGC Chairman Sukhdeo Thorat on Sunday said that while investing in education the private players should not go after profit.

“The private sector’s role in higher education should not be subject to commercialisation and profit-making. A reasonable surplus can be generated but that has to be invested in education again,” Thorat said at a function organised by Calcutta Chamber of Commerce in Kolkata.

In West Bengal, the UGC will provide financial help to 23 colleges, which are proposed to be set up in the backward districts. Thorat said the Centre is trying a step-by-step improvement of education quality along with increasing the number of NET fellowship from 1,600 to 6,000. Thorat said efforts are on to bring in academic reforms like semester system, choice based semester system and replacing marks by grades in the state universities.