The back-to-back incidents of students’ unrest at Lovely Professional University (LPU), Phagwara, and Chitkara University, Rajpura, have thrown the spotlight on the governance, transparency and regulation of 18 private universities in the state.The allegations of politics-driven student violence aside, successive regimes in the past 10 years—the SAD-BJP, Congress, or the ruling AAP government—have failed to put in place a regulatory mechanism to check the fee regulation, student strength, and quality of the teaching faculty.A committee of ministers in the Congress government had proposed the Punjab Educational Institutions (Universities and Colleges) Regulatory Authority to regulate seats, fee structure, courses, and attendance criteria of the educational institutions, affecting private universities and private technical colleges. In all, 18 universities are operational under the ‘Punjab Private University Policy, 2010,’ and more are in the queue.Recently, the Supreme Court directed private universities across India to disclose detailed financial and administrative information, including five years of audited accounts, fee structures, fund utilisation and investments. The top court said private universities cannot be permitted to function as profit-making institutions and stressed that their financial resources must remain connected to educational objectives.Manjit Singh, patron of the Joint Action Committee, said the regulatory body that includes private universities and private technical colleges would make the state government accountable for the security and safety of students and other issues.An associate professor teaching at a private university said, “Due to the large number of students coming from different parts of the country, the institutes may become hotspots for troublemakers. In such universities, there is no mechanism for redressal of grievances raised by the students. The state has no data on the number of students admitted, fee charges, and the teaching faculty experience.”Rajya Sabha MP and Chancellor of Chandigarh University Santam Sandhu said, “The back-to-back incidents have a definite pattern of disturbing peace in the state. The incident should be probed by the state and central agencies.” On the regulatory body, he said the incidents had nothing to do with any administrative or academic issues.Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.