Jawaharlal Nehru in his address atAllahabad University on 13th December 1947 said. "AUniversity stands for humanism, for tolerance, for reason, for progress and for the search of truth". I think, this speaks volumes and volumes about the role and the responsibility of the Universities; the highest citadel of learning. In order to nurture these institutions the role of the state is considered critical, because merit goods like apex education are seldom produced by markets with the objective of serving each and every member of the society. Apart from being a facilitator ard a social welfare agent, government is expected to be a proactive institution to build social infrastructure in order to move towards the goal of equitable and sustainable development. In the emerging knowledge economy, buildinga strong human capital base to complement the natural endowments and available physical capital is crucial for an expanding economy like ours.

The conventional wisdom on the role of education and particularly higher education in economic development is now being revised in terms of both theory and new evidence from developing countries including India. Tertiary education is now considered critical from the stand point of achieving overall economic and social development. The returns to those with tertiary education have tremendously improved. (WDR, 2007, P.31).

Keeping in view the requirement of the economy and to cater to the need of the job market, professional courses are now being opened in higher education institutions under self financing mode.

Two issues relating to the provision of such courses, need elaboration. First, The issue which is now debated inside the country and abroad is whether such courses be provided in private sector or in Public sector or in PPP mode.

When private entrepreneurs set up higher education facilities, in addition to the criticality of equity and access, there is also the worrisome dimension of wide variations in quality. There are a few institutions that provide top quality faculty and excellent infrastructure, targeting for high caliber output. On the other, there are numerous educational enterprises that pay scant atterition to quality and are only interested in maximizing revenue and profit. Thus there is a strong case for effective and creative, but not choking and destructive requlation that will go a long way in achieving the quantitative expansion without jeopardizing quality.