Odisha HRD

Summary of the recommdations of the National Conference on the development of higher education

October 11th, 2007

Following is from the PIB release http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=31853.

The University Grants Commission organised a two day National Conference on Development of Higher Education on 10th and 11th October,2007 at New Delhi.  The two day National Conference was attended by Vice Chancellors of Central, State, Deemed Universities and other eminent educationists. Six technical sessions were held on the themes of (i) Access and Expansion (ii)Equity & Inclusion (iii) Quality & Excellence (iv) Private Participation in Higher Education and Internationalization (v) Academic and Administrative Reforms (vi) Financing and Funding Mechanism. Following is a summary of the recommendations made by the participants of the National Conference.

1.                   There was a consensus that the triple objective of Expansion, Inclusion and Excellence are integral and complementary to one another and must be seen as three dimensions of the same problem and issues related to them will have to be addressed simultaneously and with due deference to one another.

2.                   It was agreed that access to higher education has to be increased to 20-25 percent and that the target GER of 15 by the end of the 11th plan appears reasonable. The participants agreed with the two-pronged strategy of establishment of new institutions and also capacity enhancement of existing institutions. They however emphasised that this should be done with due regard to the social and market relevance and changing preference of students and that the focus of expansion should be on inclusion and excellence and an approach that is expedient.

a.       Capacity addition in existing instituions

b.       Focus on smaller towns, rural and remote areas and backward regions where GER is lower than the national average;

c.       A women university in each state

d.       Established universities to set up rural campuses

e.       Priority to professional and technical courses in public institutions;

f.         Restructuring conventional courses

g.       Focus on professional, technical and market-oriented courses must not be at the cost of humanities and social sciences.

h.       Universities should not be reduced to skill-development centre; their focus should be intense engagements in intellectual activities;

i.         Enrolment at the PG level across all disciplines need to be enhanced;

j.         Universities and colleges to be of optimal size; conduct a study to decide;

3.                   Rationalise the affiliating system: reduce the number of colleges per university; make affiliation more effective; autonomy to bigger and better colleges;  UG examination board within the university;

4.                   It was insisted upon that the strategies for expansion as outlined in these conference must not rely upon the private sector alone for this will adversely impinge upon the goal of equity and inclusion. Thus public investment in higher education has to be increased substantially;

5.                   It was reiterated time and again that mere expansion in institutions and intake capacity shall not necessarily make higher education inclusive. This will require an proactive approach and strategies for removing the regional and social imbalances. The participants agreed with the approach and strategies suggested by the UGC and also with the recommendations of the regional conferences:

a.       New universities and colleges in areas that have GER lower than the national average;

b.       Strengthen and expand existing universities and colleges that are located in areas that have GER lower than the national average;

c.       Special assistance to institutions located in under-privileged regions/areas and also to those that have higher proportion of such social groups as SCs, STs, OBCs, Minorities, Girls, Physically Challenged in their student and staff population;

d.       Establishment of equal opportunity office in each university;

e.       Capacity building centres for students from the deprived social groups;

6.                   It was emphasised that the strategies for inclusion must also include the physically challenged – departments of disability studies;

7.                   Focus will also be on school education;

8.                   Better endowed and privileged universities and colleges need to network with under-privileged institutions located in rural and remote areas and thus offer the opportunity of providing the best talents and technology to the rural, backward and deprived institutions;

9.                   Regarding excellence in higher education will have to focus on Infrastructure, physical facilities and human resources particularly teachers;

10.               The national conference is in agreement with the strategies suggested by the UGC and the recommendations of the regional conferences;

a.       Bring the non-12b colleges & universities under the ugc fold – on matching grant basis;

b.       Priority funding for bringing B and C band universities at the level of A band universities;

c.       Faculty development through fellowships and FIP

11.               Much depends upon the availability of quality teaching faculty but for which quality of higher education shall not improve;

12.               State governments to accord priority to higher education – Remove ban on creation of faculty positions and appointment

a.       Nurturing Talents and Promoting Quality Faculty: Teaching Staff: Special and urgent efforts are needed in attracting and retaining the best available talents as faculty members in higher education. Autonomy with responsibility, performance based incentives, revisit the compensation and rewards;

b.       Rigour in faculty selection, PhD admission on merit and through rigorus selection process; faculty development;

c.       Student evaluation and feedback of courses and faculty should be introduced and these should be used for incentivising faculty members;

d.       Financial assistance to universities and colleges for International faculty exchange, Inter-institutional faculty exchange within the country and also for faculty exchange between industry and academic institutions;

13.               On the issue of academic and administrative reforms the conference is in agreement with the recommendations of the regional conferences on updating of curricula, examination and evaluation system, semester and credit based courses, inter-institutional mobility of students;

14.               The process of reforms has already been delayed for long and every possible efforts should be made to put them into practice. The leadership of the university should take the initiative and must exert their authority to ensure that these are implemented urgently;

15.               It was indicated that Infrastructural constraints particularly inadequate faculty is the biggest constraint in the implementation of these reforms;

16.               Higher education must protect its autonomy and the most effective way of doing the same lies in behaving with responsibility. Autonomy with accountability, therefore, has to be the guiding principle. The higher education fraternity must work hard and excel in their pursuits to command respect. The higher education system needs to protect its autonomy and in no circumstances the universities should allow the external forces to control the contents of higher education.

17.               Multiplicity of regulatory authorities is a concerns encroaching upon the university autonomy and creates confusion. It is suggested that:

§         The UGC should be the sole regulatory authority for universities and that other regulatory authorities should respect the autonomy of these institutions and should play only an advisory role.

§         The mandates of other regulatory authorities – the AICTE, NCTE, etc should be confined to colleges offering professional and technical courses and private and self financed non-affiliated institutions only;

§         As medical and agricultural universities and colleges are funded by separate administrative Ministries, the MCI and ICAR should continue to regulate the medical and agricultural education in universities and colleges;

§         Other regulatory authorities should consult and involve the university concerned in their approval and accreditation process of affiliated institutions;

§         Governance and Decision making process:

o        size and composition of decision making bodies.

o        Decentralisation

o        Departmental autonomy

o        Leadership in universities plays vital role in promoting quality and excellence in higher education. Thus The Vice Chancellors should be appointed

§         on merit proven administrative administrative capabilities;

§         by search committee comprising of people of repute and other external forces should not be allowed to play part in the selection of vice chancellors’

As regards internationalisation, participants agreed with the recommendations of the regional conference. Watchword has been that it must not adversely impinge on the goal of equity and quality. Strongly regulatory mechanism for the foreign universities was suggested;

So was the case with the issues concerning private participation in higher education. Even the private and self financed universities were in agreement that these universities should be guided by the principles of equity and justice and commitment for providing quality higher education; A strong regulatory framework was suggested for the purpose;

The crisis in higher education is not as much due to lack of resources as it is of priorities. Unless higher education appears high on the priority of the union and state governments, the resource constraints shall continue to remain;

Cost recovery from students is already very high in the range of 40 – 50% and the scope of raising fees may be limited.

Entry Filed under: Odisha, others and the center,UGC