The state government for now only plans on creating one state university, in part because of financial constraints.
It was in December last year that the cabinet decided that the Capt Williamson Sangma Technical University will be Meghalaya’s first state university. The move would expand higher education and also give local colleges the option of shifting their affiliation away from the central North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU). That would allow them to bypass the Common University Entrance Test (CUET).
“I understand that as we are doing things, the expectations always go up. But the state university actually should have happened a long time back,” Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma told reporters today. “It has started now and for the first part we’ll be having the campus or the office of the state university in Shillong also.”
However, the chief idea for a second university at the state level is not on the cards right now due to financial and other factors.
“Obviously, we have to first start with the current one, then maybe we can think of the second. Let us first stabilise the first, see how it moves forward, set up the campuses in different parts of the state wherever we feel is necessary. And then we can decide on the second phase,” he added.
