Private universities seek to woo students with jacuzzi, beauty salons and malls

New Delhi : As the lure of fat pay packets draw thousands of students to the IITs, IIMs and prestigious colleges of Delhi University, private varsities seek to woo the aspirants with sprawling campuses, heated pools, beauty salons and even shopping arcades.

The admission brochures and advertisements of various private universities besides promising "world-class education" and "100 per cent placement record", also offer facilities like on-campus retail therapy and luxury fitness services.

While public universities such as Tezpur University, Banaras Hindu university, Annamalai University and Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University in Kanpur have their helipads, private universities such as Symbiosis' Lavale campus near Pune and Munnar Catering college in Kerala also feature in the list.

For the fashion enthusiasts, the universities which are like "mini-townships", have shopping malls on campus to offer some retail therapy.

The 600 acre campus of Lovely professional University in Jalandhar which often graces full page advertisements in newspapers, has residential facilities for over 30,000 students, an open air theatre, 40 ATM machines and six bank branches.

Its shopping complex known as Uni-mall has elite supermarkets, departmental stores and even a photo studio. The varsity says the mall, which is completely managed by its students, has been set up to encourage entrepreneurship skills of students.

"Though education quality is of prime importance to any student but having a beautiful campus which has all the facilities for a comfortable life, help us focus better on studies," says a Rohan Bhalla, a LPU student.