It is difficult to discuss Amity University, one of India’s private universities, without the mention of its clash with the University Grants Commission. Amity’s Chancellor, ATUL CHAUHAN, clears the air on Amity’s conflict with the UGC and tells Kalpana Pathak why the university is still a preferred destination for many students. Edited excerpts:
Amity has faced flak from UGC for claiming to be the number one university...
Amity has revolutionised private higher education. Whether it is the UGC or AICTE or any other traditional body, they are all grappling to adapt to new changes. The old guard cannot imagine what a new one can do. UGC had wrong perceptions of its powers. They thought they can recognise universities. They maintain a list to this end. It however, has no powers to recognise a university. The list has been abolished. Amity fought with UGC and won the case. As far as rankings are concerned they are always controversial as different organisations will follwo different parameters to rank an institution.
But the perception is that Amity is a safe option for students who can’t get anywhere...
We do a lot of market surveys and know that there are a lot of perceptions which exist in the minds of people. One perception is that Amity is for the rich. But when you walk around the campus, you see that students are from modest middle class background. A lot of students who apply to Amity have been referred to the institute either by family members or friends. Our individual institutions are highly ranked. We get 120,000 applications for 6,000 seats.
Will you open a US campus?
We recently opened our B-school campuses in Singapore and London. We would be opening one shortly in the US too. It will not be an Indian institution. These international institutes will have directors from the region and the degree awarded will also be an American degree. We are not offering Indian degree to students at our international campuses.
How do you fund the expansion?
As we are a not-for-profit organisation. We are growing at around 40 per cent every year and our revenue is around Rs 600 crore at present. While we do support our expansion plans through debt funding, which is expensive and mostly through banks, we also support it through internal accruals. We give 10-12 years for our institutions to break-even.
Private equity institutions are bullish on private universities. Have you been approached?
Everyone has knocked on our doors but higher education is a highly regulated area.Private equity investors have a different aim and anyone who is in the university business is not here with commercial interest. But if regulations change we might look at it.
