Chennai, Oct 18 Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran on Saturday strongly opposed the Tamil Nadu government’s move to amend the Private Universities Act, 2019, which enables government-aided and self-financing colleges to be converted into private universities.
In a statement, Dhinakaran said the amendment, passed under the pretext of promoting higher education and student welfare, would in reality pave the way for the complete privatisation of government-aided colleges that have been functioning with public support for decades.
He cautioned that the changes would lead to the erosion of government oversight in academic, administrative, and financial matters.
According to him, once the amendment comes into effect, the very concept of aided education—wherein students from marginalised and economically weaker backgrounds receive government subsidies, free education, and reservation benefits—would be dismantled.
“The students of government-aided colleges, who now enjoy tuition assistance, free education, and social justice-based reservations, will lose all such benefits,” he said.
The AMMK leader added that the shift would result in an “unprecedented escalation of tuition fees,” effectively making higher education inaccessible to large sections of society. Dhinakaran also warned that the move would have serious implications for teachers and staff working in aided institutions.
“If the amendment is implemented, it will jeopardise job security, delay salary disbursement, and abolish reservation norms in teacher recruitment,” he noted.
He further said that many aided colleges were originally founded by social reformers and philanthropists with noble, charitable motives to provide affordable education to the underprivileged.
“Turning these institutions into commercial enterprises under the guise of private universities will destroy their original spirit and purpose,” Dhinakaran said.
Urging the Tamil Nadu government and the Higher Education Department to immediately withdraw the amendment, he called for maintaining the existing framework that ensures government participation, regulation, and accountability in the state’s higher education sector.
“The government must protect the social justice-oriented foundation of Tamil Nadu’s higher education system rather than allowing commercialisation through such amendments,” Dhinakaran said, appealing to the State to reconsider the legislation in the larger interest of students and teachers alike.
--IANS
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