Higher education imparts in-depth knowledge and understanding so as to advance the students to new frontiers of knowledge in different walks of life. Higher education is a global phenomenon which contributes to national development through dissemination of specialized knowledge and skills. The quality of students produced in education sector depends on the quality of education provided to them and the quality of education in turn depend upon many factors like infrastructure of the institution; quality of faculties; method of teaching used; opportunities for participating in extra-curricular activities etc. Privatization of higher education in India introduced new policies and programs to increase more employments, outcomes and income opportunities and achieve economic development. It has brought about a rapid change in the educational scenario of India. The increasing number of private institutions is the recent demand of society as the students are primary customers of higher education. The objective of this study is to compare the quality of education provided to the undergraduate students studying in public and private educational institutes in Jabalpur. The method used in the study was survey method. The sample was collected by random sampling method. 200 students from three public and three private educational institutions were selected as the sample for the study. The samples were studied with reference to the categories like infrastructure of the institute, quality of faculties, method of teaching used, co-curricular activities; discipline and personality development. It was observed that although in few areas public educational institutions are performing equally well as private institutions but overall performance of private colleges is better than public colleges. The study provides important suggestions to both public and private college principals to upgrade their quality of education by working on the variables studied and compose a uniform system of education for both public and private colleges which will lead to the development of the students, the youth of our country.

Keywords: Privatization, Higher Education, Quality of Faculties, Infrastructure, Personality Development.