{"id":28540,"date":"2018-10-24T12:54:14","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T07:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=28540"},"modified":"2018-10-24T12:54:14","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24T07:24:14","slug":"reforming-higher-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/reforming-higher-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Reforming higher education"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/reforming-higher-education\/article24316074.ece\">Reforming higher education<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Article:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Amitabha Bhattacharya, Professor, Michigan State University, discuss the major reforms needed in higher education and designing the successor regime to the UGC.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong><u>Important Analysis:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>2. The draft Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill put in public domain now.<\/p>\n<p>3. The HECI will replace University Grant Commission (UGC).<\/p>\n<p>4. The new Bill will cover all fields of education except medical, agriculture and institutions set up under the Central and State Acts, excluding those of national importance.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>5. The purpose of creating new Bill :<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To provide more autonomy.<\/li>\n<li>Facilitate holistic growth.<\/li>\n<li>Offer greater opportunities to Indian students at affordable cost.<\/li>\n<li>More multi-disciplinary in nature.<\/li>\n<li>Reform in higher education.<\/li>\n<li>Replacing UGC, once it is done, the technical education regulator AICTE and the teacher\u2019s education regulator NCTE will also be reformed on similar lines<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>6. Main points of departure in the proposed Bill<\/u><\/strong><u>:<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Separation between academic functions and grant-giving ones.<\/li>\n<li>The former to be discharged by the HECI and the latter by the Ministry of HRD directly.<\/li>\n<li>The academic functions includes- promoting the quality of instructions, comprehensive and holistic growth of education and research in a competitive global environment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>7. Need for single regulatory body:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To cope with the ever increasing complexity of the sector.<\/li>\n<li>Rapidly expanding number of institutions<\/li>\n<li>Deteriorating standards in the quality of students of the job market.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>8. Regime of multiple regulators:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It started in mid 1980\u2019s.<\/li>\n<li>Various professional bodies also started asserting themselves as regulators in early 90\u2019s.<\/li>\n<li>This period also mark a galloping period of growth with setting up many private universities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>9. Concern areas:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The proposed Bill seeks to empower the HECI with all academic functions, however its role vis-\u00e0-vis professional bodies is unclear.<\/li>\n<li>Depriving HECI from funding functions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>10. Funding:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The MHRD has been directly funding institutions of national importance.<\/li>\n<li>The funding scheme of state universities, which account for more than 50% of the student enrolment, requires to be clearly worked out.<\/li>\n<li>It is sought to be done through the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan or RUSA.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>11. Composition:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and 12 members.<\/li>\n<li>The secretary of HECI will be an officer of the rank of joint secretary<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>12. Functions of HECI:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Improving academic standards with specific focus on learning outcomes.<\/li>\n<li>Evaluation of academic performance by institutions<\/li>\n<li>Mentoring of institutions, training of teachers, promote use of educational technology, etc.<\/li>\n<li>It will develop norms for setting standards for opening and closure of institutions.<\/li>\n<li>Provide for greater flexibility and autonomy to institutions.<\/li>\n<li>Lay standards for appointments to critical leadership positions at the institutional level irrespective of university started under any law (including state list).<\/li>\n<li>Specifying norms and standards for grant of autonomy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>13. Suggestions:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The proposed Bill has to be situated in the context of certain new initiatives like granting autonomy to institutions like IIM.<\/li>\n<li>Quantum jump in public expenditure is required in the following sector:\n<ol>\n<li>Making the universities major issues like making the universities the hub of scientific and technological research,<\/li>\n<li>restoring the value of education in social sciences and the humanities,<\/li>\n<li>ensuring that poor and meritorious students can afford to be educated in subjects of their choice,<\/li>\n<li>improving the quality of instruction to enhance the employability of the students,<\/li>\n<li>Addressing the concerns of faculty shortage, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>14. UGC vs HCEI:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>15. The UGC\u2019s regulatory power included quality assessment and giving grants. The HECI will just ensure academic quality while MHRD will give grants to institutions.<\/p>\n<p>16. The UGC conducted inspections to assess institutions. The HECI will practically do away with these and shift to a regime of \u201ctransparent disclosures\u201d instead.<\/p>\n<p>17. The UGC published lists of\u00a0 bogus institutions once in a while. The HECI will be empowered to shutdown sub-standard and bogus institutions. Non \u2013compliance by institutions\u00a0 could also lead to jail terms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reforming higher education Article: Amitabha Bhattacharya, Professor, Michigan State University, discuss the major reforms needed in higher education and designing the successor regime to the UGC. Important Analysis: 2. The draft Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill put in public domain now. 3. The HECI will replace University Grant Commission (UGC). 4. The new&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/reforming-higher-education\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Reforming higher education<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704906305},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}