UGC proposes clustering of colleges for multidisciplinary learning

Source: The post is based on the article “UGC proposes clustering of colleges for multidisciplinary learning” published in The Hindu on 2nd September 2022.

What is the News?

University Grants Commission(UGC) will make public its “Guidelines for Transforming Higher Educational Institutions into Multidisciplinary Institutions”.

What are the key features of the guidelines?

Currently, colleges are connected with universities through an “affiliating system” where universities design the syllabi, conduct examinations and award degrees, while teaching is done in colleges. 

The guidelines intend to bring affiliated colleges on to the track of progressive autonomy leading to a degree-awarding institution and finally into a university.

The guidelines have prescribed three different approaches for this: 

Clustering of Colleges: UGC has suggested academic collaboration between institutions through “clusters” of higher education institutions (HEIs) in order to promote multidisciplinary education and research in online and offline modes. 

– The member colleges in a cluster will continue to function as affiliated colleges under the university in the initial phase during which they will share their resources to offer programmes and guide student research projects. 

– After the initial years, the affiliating university may affiliate the cluster of colleges as a single unit during which they will pass through graded autonomy before developing into an autonomous degree-granting cluster of colleges. These can then later evolve into Research or Teaching Universities.

Restructuring of Higher education: Merger of single-stream institutions with other multidisciplinary institutions under the same management or different managements as well as expanding the number of departments in a college or university by adding new subjects such as languages, literature, music, Indology, sports etc.

– This restructuring of higher education will enable academic collaborations and the offering of dual degree programmes. 

– For instance, the students will be able to complete the first degree at the host institution and an additional second degree at a partnering institution without going through the admission process again.

Capacity-building for faculty so that they can teach, train and research in multidisciplinary academic programmes such as through initiatives like Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching (ARPIT) as well as investment in learning assessment tools.