The sparring between the top brass of the National Knowledge Commission on the panel's recommendations for improving the standards of higher education in the country has landed in the Prime Minister's Office.

Alleging that he was not consulted while preparing the final recommendations, NKC vice-chairman Professor P M Bhargava has submitted his separate set of recommendations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"I have submitted my recommendations to the prime minister in the last week of January. I preferred to do this because I am not party to what (NKC chairman Sam) Pitroda has submitted," Bhargava told PTI.

The objections raised by Bhargava pertain to many suggestions, including giving permission to universities to use their land for funds generation, allowing the entry of foreign education providers and expansion of higher education in terms of creating more universities.

"The recommendations submitted by Pitroda advocate drawing of norms and parameters for universities to use their available land as a source of finance. I do not agree with it. If it happens, it will lead to corruption," he said.

The NKC recommendations submitted by Pitroda had suggested that each university may be allowed with a substantial amount of public land to generate funds, in excess of its spatial requirements.

The excess land can be a subsequent source of income generation, as per the NKC recommendations.

"The universities should not be allowed to venture into any land business. One university in Hyderabad is facing a lot of problem after entering into land deals," Bhargava said.

The NKC has stressed the need to formulate policies for the entry of foreign institutions to India and promotion of Indian institutions abroad while ensuring a level playing field for foreign and domestic institutions in the country.

Bhargava has objected to this, too. He wrote to the prime minister, 'No foreign education providers should be allowed to set up educational facilities in India for profit which would not be entirely ploughed back into the institution in India but used to support the parent institution abroad'.

'Only a well-known foreign institution (say, among the top 200 universities in the world) may be allowed to set up campuses here, solely following an altruistic motive. If such an institution makes a profit in India, it would clearly need to be ploughed back entirely in improving of the set up in India', he said in his recommendations.

The NKC has advocated for expansion of higher education with about 1,500 universities in the country to increase the gross enrolment ratio. Bhargava has, however, suggested for increasing number of universities to about 3,000.

To achieve this, Bhargava has proposed converting the good colleges into universities, upgrade the existing nearly 300 universities and create new varsities.

Asked whether he met the Left leaders on the issue, Bhargava said the issue came up during a 'general discussion' with them. "The Left leaders are my friends. I did not raise the issue before them. But as they wanted to know the state of affairs in the NKC, I told them about the developments," he said.