"Expansion of higher education without residential infrastructure undermines equity of access." Discuss with reference to central universities in India.

Central universities in India have added colleges, seats and campuses, but hostels have not kept pace. Getting a seat is not the same as getting an education. If a student cannot afford safe housing in a metro city, the seat is of little use to them. The statement largely holds, though housing is only one of several barriers.

How the hostel gap undermines equity

• Outstation and rural students: In Delhi University, most constituent colleges have no hostel, especially those off the North Campus. Students are pushed into costly private paying-guest (PG) housing.
• Gender: Families often refuse a seat in a distant city when there is no safe housing. Women's hostels are few, so distance becomes a gender barrier.
• Caste and region: SC, ST and North-East students face high rents and discrimination when they rent privately. The PM-AJAY hostel component builds hostels for SC students, but on a small scale. For example, it sanctioned two hostels with 500 seats in Hyderabad over five years [1].
• Safety and duty of care: The recent building collapse in Satya Niketan, Delhi killed students living there as PGs. It shows the cost of unregulated housing around campuses.
• Planning failure: New colleges were approved with no requirement to build hostels. Adding them later is hard in cities where land is scarce.

The other side

• Expansion still helped day scholars and local students. A non-residential seat costs far less to provide.
• Funding is available. HEFA has approved ₹385.27 crore for the Central University of Tamil Nadu, including 300-bed girls' and boys' hostels [2]. Under the 2018 terms, central universities set up before 2014 repay only 10% of the principal [3].
• Fees, language and academic preparation also limit access, so hostels alone cannot equalise it.
• However, institutions repay HEFA principal from internal accruals [4]. This can push fees up and burden the very students hostels are meant to help.

Way forward

• Make hostel land a condition for approving any new college.
• Give priority to off-campus colleges and to women, SC, ST and North-East students. Use PM-AJAY and HEFA, and publish repayment plans that keep fees stable.
• Require PG buildings to be registered and safety-inspected by municipal bodies.

A seat without housing opens a gap between being admitted and actually being able to study. Planning hostels alongside new seats, and making private housing safe, would deliver the equity aim of NEP 2020 and SDG 4 (inclusive, equitable quality education).