The story so far: On September 8, 2026, the final day of the Budget session of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, Higher Education Minister P. Viswanathan introduced the Tamil Nadu Private Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2026, seeking to drastically change the statutory requirements for setting up private universities in the State. The Bill was eventually passed. The Communist Party of India (CPI), which is providing outside support to the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK)-led coalition government, and the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), opposed the Bill. Now, Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar has sought clarifications on the Bill’s provisions from the State government.

What are the key amendments in the Bill?

As per clause (a) of Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Private Universities Act, 2019, enacted by the then Edappadi Palaniswami-led government, not less than 100 acres of contiguous land is required to establish a private university in Tamil Nadu. Also, as per sub-section (1) of Section 46 of the Act, the sponsoring body should establish a permanent endowment fund of ₹50 crore for the purpose of meeting the expenditure for the administration of a private university during the process of its dissolution.

However, now citing scarcity of land in the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) area, the government, in the amended Bill, has prescribed a minimum of 12 acres of contiguous land within its limits. For other municipal corporations and municipal councils, the minimum land requirement was revised to 18 acres, while for the rest of the State, the minimum land requirement was set at 25 acres. Additionally, the government decided to reduce the permanent endowment fund to ₹25 crore.

Why has the government proposed these amendments?

The Statement of Objects and Reasons section of the Bill says the State government was following recommendations of a Task Force on Compliance Reduction and Deregulation set up by the Union government to simplify rules, cut down paperwork, and make it easier to do business across States. For education, the Task Force had listed five focus areas. It recommended amendments to relevant provisions of the Act to eliminate the minimum land requirement and remove the minimum endowment fund requirement for setting up higher educational institutions.

To which institutions does this amendment apply?

The amendments would extend to all private universities established under the Tamil Nadu Private Universities Act, 2019, and to Shiv Nadar University and Sai University, which were established in 2018 through special legislations before the parent Act came into force.

What is the rationale provided by officials of Higher Education Dept.?

While the Bill says the recommendation came from the Task Force on Compliance Reduction and Deregulation, officials of the Higher Education Department say that they have examined the land-usage patterns in existing private institutions and the availability of contiguous land parcels across the State before arriving at the figures.

While large parcels of contiguous land were only available away from cities and towns, 100 acres of contiguous land was difficult to find even in many rural areas. This meant that the institutions would be situated far away from urban centres, the unwanted impact of which was the difficulty in attracting good faculty. For students, too, the travel to college and back would be cumbersome and time-consuming.

In the course of their review, the officials reportedly discovered that the institutions having 100 acres barely used the entire acreage towards developing facilities for students. The basic requirements of academic block, administrative block, and students’ hostels can even be housed in vertical structures, which would also make it possible to have adequate space for playgrounds. Thus was born the three-graded structure of land requirement provision.

For the endowment amount, the officials said that they studied the current practices in several other States and then arrived at the figure.

What are the concerns being raised?

When the Bill was tabled in the Assembly, voices of dissent came from the CPI and the PMK. The CPI has since argued that such a move will lead to the commercialisation of education, which would go against the principle of social justice followed by successive governments in the State. The PMK was of the view that in addition to the commercialisation of education, the reduction in land requirement could well result in inadequate infrastructure in these universities. The Higher Education Minister defended the Bill, stating that it would attract world-class institutions to Tamil Nadu.

DMK members were not present in the Assembly when the Bill was passed, as they were evicted from the House earlier in the day. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) members were also not present in the House.

What has been the general reaction to the proposed amendment?

Academics fear that the amended Bill could facilitate current self-financing colleges in the State to establish private universities or affiliate their institution with private universities.

What has been the government’s response?

Higher Education Department officials put to rest such concerns, stating that attempts to “convert” existing self-financing colleges that are affiliated to State universities to private universities or their affiliates “will not be allowed”, since these new entities were Greenfield Universities and not to be confused with Brownfield Universities. It should be mentioned here that last year, the then DMK government had attempted to bring in an amendment to the Tamil Nadu Private Universities Act, 2019, seeking to introduce provisions allowing the conversion of existing self-financing or government-aided institutions to Brownfield Universities. The government had to withdraw the Bill in face of stiff resistance from Opposition parties, teachers’ associations, student bodies, and the public.

The current Bill treads a different line and allows for certain relaxations for setting up Greenfield Universities.

What does the Shiv Nadar University experience say?

The concerns are, however, not allayed just as yet. The experience with SSN College of Engineering is one reason why. The college applied for, and secured, progressive disaffiliation from Anna University in September 2025. It has stopped the intake of students through the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) counselling process from the academic year 2026-27 and are in the process of merging with Shiv Nadar University. Intake of students for the new entity will, now, be handled by the private university.

Before the disaffiliation, the SSN College of Engineering was mandated to collect tuition fees fixed by the Fee Fixation Committee, as per the norms of the Tamil Nadu government. As per the website of SNU, the fees for UG degrees for the new SSN School of Engineering is six times more than what was collected from students before.

This gives rise to enough discomfort among the student community. Student bodies affiliated to the Left parties have launched protests across Tamil Nadu against the Bill. They say that reducing the land requirement would accelerate privatisation of education, providing a fillip to profit-driven entities to charge higher fees. As has been experienced in the NEET coaching issue, students from well-to-do background would benefit, leaving behind poorer students and widening the socio-economic gap.

The jury is still out on this. Nonetheless, this move definitely signals the government’s intentions of allowing multidisciplinary universities to thrive in the State, while it claims that it would maintain some sort of control over them.

What does the parent Act entail?

The Tamil Nadu Private Universities Act, 2019, entails that the executive council of the private universities include the Higher Education Secretary and the Director of Collegiate Education as ex-officio members, as per Section 26 of the Act. According to Section 50, the government has the right to call for information and records from private universities if it deems that there is a violation of the Act, statutes, or ordinances. The government also hold the power to derecognise private universities.

In the past couple of decades, several standalone colleges offering multiple disciplines were elevated as “Deemed to be University” by the Union Ministry of Education on the advise of the University Grants Commission (UGC). It gave these institutions freedom to revise their curriculum, conduct examinations, award degrees, and, above all, fix their own fee structures and intake policies, removing every bit of governmental control over them. Tamil Nadu has around 30 of them functioning. There is an argument that the recent amendments to the Tamil Nadu Private Universities Act is an attempt to counter the mushrooming Deemed to be Universities in the State and to exercise an element of control over their affairs.

What next?

The State government now needs to convince the Governor that it has addressed every legal requirement before amending the 2019 Act.