Govt plans joint degrees with foreign varsities, higher pay to faculty for better education in India
BY
ANUBHUTI VISHNOI
, ET BUREAU | JUN 22, 2017, 06.43 AM IST
NEW DELHI: Until the Higher Education Empowerment Regulation Agency (Heera) — the new regulator— is formed, the Central government will work on an 11-point agenda to free up education and bring in qualitative change.
The Niti Aayog has drawn up a plan for the same in consultation with the Human Resource Development ministry and has decided to implement the government's 'short-term measures to improve UGC and AICTE regulatory frameworks'.
The new agenda holds the promise of joint degrees with foreign institutions, full online courses, more incentives for faculty, using NET to decide on PhD admissions and ending the inspector raj that UGC and AICTE have come to be associated with. ET brings the details of the higher education recast:
Accreditation Overhaul
It has been agreed to empanel reputed national and international accreditation agencies in addition to India's own National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). The other agencies will be regulated by the UGC and will carry out the accreditation on quality parameters in a transparent and objective manner and then put all reports online. Every institute to be accredited for five years and autonomy to be linked with the accreditation grade.
Three Levels of Graded Autonomy
Institutes awarded highest accreditation grades will be granted higher level of academic, administrative and financial autonomy vis a vis those with a lower grading. UGC has already put out draft regulations.
Reward the Good faculty
Additional compensation and incentives for a limited proportion of faculty— about 10% of associate professors and professors to attract faculty of global repute. Institutes graded highest will be permitted to support this move through own funds.
End Inspector Raj
There is consensus to limit UGC inspections and bring in greater objectivity and transparency through clearly defined assessment criteria and and display of all inspection reports online. Inspections to be limited to approvals for beginning academic operations of institution/department/program and documentation based approvals to be relied upon for any other approvals.
Online Freedom
While UGC currently does not recognise online programs, it is now agreed the top institutions be permitted to run fully online programs consistent with standards at top 100 universities. Courses without a 'practical' content to be fully online and those that require some practical content be run on hybrid mode. Transparent accreditation and grading of online courses.
Expanding Footprint
The government has agreed to allow highly graded universities to open off shore campuses in areas of geo-political importance.
Autonomous Colleges
The UGC's existing norms on autonomous colleges to be replaced with regulations to ensure better implementation, bring more objectivity in the evaluation process and permit institutions to design innovative new degree programs, allow these colleges to award a degree under the title of autonomous college with seal of the University and also provide an enabling route for institutions that fail to get a no-objection certificate from a reluctant affiliating university.
The Foreign Element
Academic collaboration to be permitted only with foreign institutions that are in top 500 world rankings such as QS, Shanghai or Times Higher Education. It is now proposed that a joint degree mechanism be explored. Journal check on faculty Instead of existing mechanism of awarding points for quantity of publications (many of which may be in sub standard journals), it is proposed that points be awarded on quality of journals. Awarding of Academic Performance Indicator (API) scores to be based on objective parameters consistent with global standards of quality.
NET check for PhD
Rattled by quality of PhD admissions, it is proposed that the existing NET exam for the junior research fellowships and lectureship be adjusted for entry to PhD programmes also. This NET screening to be followed entrance test/interview by institutions.
Two-Term Limit
No more than two terms to be given for the leadership of any institution except in cases of outstanding improvement in an institution's accreditation or rankings during the second term.
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