I know Gehlot, an alumnus of Roorkee Engineering College for some time now. He retired from UP’s PWD after serving as chief engineer. Gehlot and five others have established a trust that has set up an institute of higher education in Ghaziabad, one of engineering and the other for MBA course affiliated to UP Technical University. The initial intake is of 300 students, 240 in four branches of engineering and 660 in MBA.

Is it not exciting that persons like Gehlot after retirement are going to invest in education sector instead of investing in his own area of specialization such as consultancy in the booming road sector or starting a venture in infrastructure sector. And as it appears many Gehlots are entering education sector. Has the sector become the golden goose? Is it philanthropy or business? With mushrooming of private professional institutes and forthcoming government regulation of mandatory accreditation for improving quality, how many of them will survive? Will it be the survival of the fittests to meet the demand generated for India’s demographic dividend or the politicians will find a way to bypass it?

As reported recently in ‘Business Today’, the market for engineering education is around $5.85 billion, while that of MBA is around $731 million. It is surprising that some of the bigger entrepreneurs in education sector will touch $1 billion in revenue per annum soon. According to an estimate, the revenue of Amity University in Noida is around Rs 600 crore, and that of Manipal University, ICFAI, and VIT University are respectively Rs 800, 700, and 500 crore. And beside many politicians including stalwarts such as Sarad Pawar, even people from totally different background such as Mittal of Lovely Professional University have invested in education sector in a big way, and are trying to build a brand image even to attract students from foreign countries. And as it appears Sibal will also get the doors for reputed foreign universities opened in India soon.

Mushrooming of these engineering and MBA institutes almost all around in the country excites me but simultaneously shocks me too. I could see a glimpse of that, when I visited Ghaziabad yesterday. And a manager I wished to know the investment required in setting up of these institutes. Naturally, today the cost of the land is the major constituent, and every entrepreneur tries to get big enough area for the future expansion, some with intention of moving to the next stage to get university status. According to an expert in education sector, an MBA institute spread over 1.5 acres with a capacity of 240 students would require an investment of around Rs 15 crore. An engineering college with a capacity of 1600 students spread over 10 acres of land would require an investment of Rs 100 crore. With a lot of black money in financial system and support of banks both private and public, it has become a way of easy entry to tap the demand from the rising number of students because of rapidly increasing aspirations of even the families at the bottom of the pyramid. Gehlot and his partners have spent around Rs 30 crore for this phase, as I was told by someone close to the project, when I was there yesterday as chief guest on the inauguration day.

Interestingly, the education boom that started in south has touched almost all the states but some unfortunate ones such as Bihar, East UP, North-East states, and J& K. For example, ‘Indore has gone in the past 15 years from one management institute to 64 management institutes. The state of Madhya Pradesh has gone from seven engineering colleges 15 years ago, six of which were government-run, to 150 engineering colleges today.’

I wonder that many of the institutes might not have the sufficiently equipped laboratories, libraries and faculties. I wish the institutes in a particular location get into a cluster and create some common facilities to be shared on rotation. Another solution can come from technologies. For each of the subject, the best professors can be hired to get the course lectures videoed and made available on CDs or on a website. The faculty becomes facilitator.

However, I was happy to see the students of the first batch starting at the institute. I guessed most of them were from the rural background. I wished to succeed and fulfill their dreams. However, I wish to visit them again and interact with them.