thiruvananthapuram the global education meet organised by the state higher education council concluded here on saturday with a note on the need to open up the states education sector to private universities the meeting has served its purpose several eminent educationalists and education providers have engaged in serious deliberations on how to improve the quality of higher education in the state several participants were surprised that unlike other states in the country kerala doesnt have private universities the absence of private and foreign universities was pointed out as one of the major hindrances in establishing the academic city and higher academic zones higher education council vicepresident t p sreenivasan said in his address to the media he said it was not the number of concrete proposals or mous that decide the success of the meet but the quality of deliberations and the unique platform for them in addition to the nine institutions that have submitted expressions of interest in setting up international higher academic zones three more institutions have expressed their interest for the same during the meet the government can hold meetings with them to follow up on their proposals he said the kovalam declaration listed out several steps to be taken by various stakeholders including the union government for setting up the academic city and higher education zones it requested the union government to finalize the higher education bill so that the longterm legislative framework for international cooperation in education is available for educational providers