The decision had been taken in view of the keen interest shown by several institutions to set up private universities in the fields of management, computer science, computer applications, law, environment science, medical education and other new emerging areas of knowledge, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said today.

The draft of the Haryana Private Universities Bill, 2006 was approved by the Cabinet with conditionas that would ensure certain minimum standards of quality and safeguard the interests of the students, especially those hailing from the state, he said.

At present, there are five universities in the state-- Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Ch Devi Lal University, Sirsa, Guru Jambheshwar University, Hisar and Chaudhary Charan Singh Hayrana Agricultural University, Hisar.

Also, there are three deemed universities namely the National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra (formerly Regional Engineering College, Kurukshetra, National Brain Research Centre, Gurgaon and National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal.

The private universities would be self-financed and would not be entitled to receive any grant or other financial assistance from the government or any board or corporation owned or controlled by the government. It would not admit any other college or institution to the privilege of affiliation.

UNI MA-JN VD VV2001