Click to play videoBangalore: The Dayananda Sagar Institutions in Bangalore is spread over 29 acres, there 10 colleges in one campus and 8,000 students in all.
The education scene in Bangalore is only a small example of how colleges are emerging in a fast pace in the south. Cities like Chennai, Coimbatore and Hyderabad are also witnessing an education boom.
These cities have seen a ‘corporatisation” of education as never before. Every institution has resorted to running a variety of colleges as the demand rises. And the numbers speak for themselves.
There are whopping 260 engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu, 216 in Andhra Pradesh and 120 in Karnataka.
"We've had a big boom, 300 institutions in the last one and half years. You should have heard that in nursing education. If we are the Silicon Valley of India, the government’s contribution to that has been just one engineering college in 50 years. The remaining is from private sector," spokesperson, consortium of medical, engineering and dental colleges, Dr S Kumar says.
One of the main reasons for the mushrooming of private colleges is that there are very few colleges in States like Bengal, Bihar and in the northeast.
And when the need of reserved category students are met, there are very few seats left for merited students. Hence they come down south.
"About 45 per cent of students are non-Karnataka, from the rest of India and rest of world. This campus represents full India and the world. We see a mini-India in this campus," director, business strategy, Dayanand Sagar Institutions, R Janardhan says.
"Job prospects are good here, moreover in Assam, education facilities are not good. We have education facilities but higher education is simple and slow," an Assamese student, Trishita Borthakur says.
"It is not so easy to get a seat. I sat for an entrance test, scored well and got in," BMM student, Sonu Luniya adds.
However, states like Tamil Nadu have seen so many deemed universities that the business of education is taking its toll.
"Quality has definitely suffered. When you have such large numbers, quality will go down. I wouldn’t deny it," spokesperson, Dr S Kumar says.
And there is no doubt that the mushrooming of colleges has its own odds.
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