New law obstructs affiliation of aided colleges with private universities in state

AU,a self-fianced university,was set up in 2009 by AES. Though the statutes of AU passed by the state Assembly provide that all the institutions,school as well as colleges run by AES could be transferred to AU. And once transferred,grant-in-aid colleges would be automatically converted into self-financed institutes.

AES had demanded shifting M G Science Institute,L D Arts College,A G Teachers College,L M Pharmacy College and H L College of Commerce to AU. These college are run on government grants.

While the pharmacy college is affiliated to the Gujarat Technological University,the other four are affiliated with the Gujarat University.

These colleges are among the oldest educational institutions in the state with L D Arts College in existence since 1937 and L M Pharmacy College since 1947.

But the latest amendment has thrown a spanner in the plans of all the private universities.

Principal Secretary (education) Hansmukh Adhia said that no grant-in-aid college in the state under the new law could shift under the control of a private university.

He said the colleges could be shifted to a private university only if their management refused to take financial grants from the government and converted them into a self-financed entity.

AU registrar B N Shah said that it was now not possible to shift these colleges to this university.

He said that AU wanted affiliation of these colleges with it as these were run by AES.

“But now there is no possibility of shifting them to AU from GU,” said Shah.