HIGHER EDUCATION

CHALLENGES

#Affordability

#Supply vs demand gap

#Quality : poor R&D, lack of high quality infrastructure, lack of industry academy link

#low govt investment and commercialisation of education

#Outdated learning process, currculam and texts

UGC

Functions

  • licensing and accreditation of colleges and courses
  • establish standard for courses
  • giving fellowships to students

Issues

  • poor and outdated administrative mechanism
  • inadequate staff
  • decision without stakeholder consultation : eg – fellowship cancellation
  • political appoinments
  • overregulaton (on fellowships ets) and underregulation (accreditation of private colleges)

TSR Subramanium committee Recommendations

  • Scrap UGC and create a ‘National Commission for Higher Education’
  • Establish National higher education council
  • streamlining administrative process and techniques

Way forward

  • increase govt investment (higher education financing agency – HEFA )
  • industry institute linkage
  • incentivisation of research
  • foreign faculty + student linkage programme
  • technology implementation : SWAYAM, National academy repository with student details

RASHTRIYA UCHHATHAR SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (RUSA)

Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS), launched in 2013 aims at providing strategic funding to eligible state higher educational institutions.

The salient objectives of RUSA are to;

  • Improve the overall quality of state institutions :  by ensuring conformity to prescribed norms and standards and adopt accreditation as a mandatory quality assurance framework.
  • Governance : Usher transformative reforms in the state higher education system by creating a facilitating institutional structure for planning and monitoring at the state level, promoting autonomy in State Universities and improving governance in institutions.
  • Quality faculty :  Ensure adequate availability ofin all higher educational institutions and ensure capacity building at all levels of employment.
  • Capacity building :Expand the institutional base by creating additional capacity in existing institutions and establishing new institutions, in order to achieve enrolment targets.
  • Accessibility : Correct regional imbalances in access to higher education by setting up institutions in unserved & underserved areas.
  • Improve equity :  providing adequate opportunities of higher education to SC/STs and socially and educationally backward classes; promote inclusion of women, minorities, and differently abled persons.
  • Ensure reforms in the affiliation, academic and examination systems.

Components

RUSA would create new universities through upgradation of existing autonomous colleges and conversion of colleges in a cluster. It would create new model degree colleges, new professional colleges and provide infrastructural support to universities and colleges. Faculty recruitment support, faculty improvements programmes and leadership development of educational administrators are also an important part of the scheme. In order to enhance skill development the existing central scheme of Polytechnics has been subsumed within RUSA. A separate component to synergise vocational education with higher education has also been included in RUSA. Besides these, RUSA also supports reforming, restructuring and building capacity of institutions in participating state.

The following are the primary components of RUSA that capture the key action and funding areas that must be pursued for the fulfilment of the targets:

  • Up gradation of existing autonomous colleges to Universities
  • Conversion of colleges to Cluster Universities
  • Infrastructure grants to Universities
  • New Model Colleges (General)
  • Upgradation of existing degree colleges to model colleges
  • New Colleges (Professional)
  • Infrastructure grants to colleges
  • Research, innovation and quality improvement
  • Equity initiatives
  • Faculty Recruitment Support
  • Faculty improvements
  • Vocationalisation of Higher Education
  • Leadership Development of Educational Administrators
  • Institutional restructuring & reforms
  • Capacity building & preparation, data collection & planning

 

 

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