Telangana IT and Industries Minister Duddilla Sridhar Babu today said that the Telangana government would continue its fight until the UGC Draft Regulations 2025 - governing State powers over higher education - were either amended or withdrawn, and that the State was determined to protect federal principles.
Addressing the media at the Secretariat, Babu accused the draft regulations as aimed at centralising the appointment of Vice-Chancellors by eliminating State representation. He criticized that as an "authoritarian" move to seize control over State-run universities.
He said that it was the States that invested in the State-run universities - for example, Telangana invested Rs 4,000 crore annually in higher education - and that the Centre could not usurp its powers over them in this unconstitutional manner.
He revealed that six States had already united against the draft in a landmark meeting in Bengaluru on August 5, where a joint resolution had been submitted to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. He said that Kerala would host the next strategic meeting to escalate the resistance, and that even Jammu & Kashmir had signaled its readiness to join the resistance, strengthening the nationwide pushback.
The minister also criticized the Centre's proposal for a centralised national entrance test for undergraduate admissions, and called the proposal an exclusionary move that could discourage students from pursuing higher education.
He claimed that Telangana had a Gross Enrollment Ratio of 40% - far above the national average of 28% - and said that policies such as a centralised national entrance test threatened to reverse that progress.
filed in:Telangana, Telangana Congress, Sridhar Babu, Centre, Education, UGC, Universities