- The official view was that under private management the quality of education had deteriorated and educational institutions acted as factories producing political revolutionaries.
- In 1902, Curzon set up the Raleigh Commission to go into conditions and prospects of universities in India and to suggest measures for improvement in their constitution and working.
- Based on its recommendations, the Indian Universities Act was passed in 1904.
- Curzon justified greater governmental control over universities (as recommended by the commission) in the name of quality and efficiency, but actually sought to restrict education and to discipline the educated towards loyalty to the Government.
- The nationalists saw in it an attempt to strengthen imperialism and to sabotage nationalist feelings.
- Gokhale called it a “retrograde measure”.
| Important recommendations made by Raleigh Commission 1. Universities were to give more attention to study and research. 2. The number of fellows of a university and their period in office were reduced and most fellows were to be nominated by the Government. 3. Government was to have powers to veto universities’ senate regulations and could amend these regulations or pass regulations on its own. 4. Conditions were to be made stricter for affiliation of private colleges. 5. Five lakh rupees were to be sanctioned per annum for five years for improvement of higher education and universities. |