The Government of India, over the last 60 years, has made provisions for full policy support and considerable public funds to create one of the world’s largest systems of higher education. However, these institutions, with a few notable exceptions have not been able to maintain the high standards of education or keep pace with developments in knowledge and technology sector.
Financial constraint with ever increasing enrolments, over a period of time, and an explosive demand from primary and secondary education has led to the deterioration in the financial support provided by the government. India has an immense population of uneducated children and the Indian Constitution provides for free and compulsory education up to the age of 14. India also has the dubious distinction of one of the highest levels of illiteracy in the world. The system of public education at all levels is in urgent need of repair and reforms. Subsequently, Governments both at the Center and in the States need to allocate substantial resources to ensure that future generations are adequately equipped to engage meaningfully in the new knowledge based economy. Therefore, India has to find a strategy that will enable it to effectively address the numerous challenges in the education sector of improving literacy, universalizing access to basic and secondary education and simultaneously ensuring an adequate supply of higher skills and technically trained manpower.
It should be noted that the gross enrolment rate of higher education in India is roughly 6 per cent. This will need to touch 15 per cent by 2015 if India dreams of joining the pantheons of super powers by the next decade. This will involve thousands of crores of Rupees of investment and since the Government will not be able in a position to meet the huge financial requirement, all other sources of funds will need to be tapped.
In the given scenario of well defined constraints on public funding of education, the role of the private sector especially in the provision of higher education and technical training has become increasingly important.
Keeping the above backdrop in mind and to bridge the considerable gap between the huge demand and supply in the technical education field, a group of like minded denizens of Meghalaya founded a Trust for the purpose of education and development in north east India in 1999 and through their tireless efforts were able to establish the first private Engineering college of North East India-Shillong Engineering & Management College(SEMC). Within a span of more than a decade, the institute has established itself as a pioneer in the field of technical education. Till date, more than 4000 students have graduated from this venerable institution and are currently placed at some of the top MNCs and reputed companies all over India and the success of SEMC has prompted numerous private technical institutes to come up in Meghalaya and its neighbouring states. In the process, this near boom in the technical education sector has benefited a large number of indigenous students of North East who now have the option of studying near their home states at a fraction of cost compared to the students who were forced earlier to pursue their higher education far from their home states.
In order to sustain this trend, and to ensure that our state in particular and North East region in general do not lag behind in the new Knowledge era, it is imperative that we continue to produce a critical mass of highly skilled manpower at an accelerated pace. Keeping this objective in mind, the CMJ Group headed by Mr. C.M.Jha decided to set up one of the first private university in Meghalaya- CMJ University in 2009, where the highest quality of education with the best of facilities could be provided to every student. The University is situated on a 40 acre Campus on a scenic hillock in Jorabat on the Guwahati-Shillong Highway with spectacular 360 degree views of the picturesque hills. It has a built up area of more than 1, 50,000 sq ft with well furnished modern classrooms, fully quipped laboratories, well stocked library with broadband connectivity and well qualified faculty. It is a fully residential university boasting of superior accommodation for Boys & Girls.