The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Address policy divide on education

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 20, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Address policy divide on education

Staff Reporter

Debate over recommendations of knowledge commission, UGC
Make UGC the sole regulatory authority, say VCs

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The national-level policy divide on higher education, as reflected in the divergent perceptions of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) and the University Grants Commission (UGC), calls for a fresh national debate on the strategies for the development of higher education in the country, All-India Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisations president Thomas Joseph has said.

A press note issued here by the AIFUCTO said the organisation welcomed the major recommendations of the National Conference on Development of Higher Education, organised by the UGC, which concluded recently in New Delhi.

While both the NKC and the UGC are for the triple objectives of expansion, inclusion and excellence, the former pits one objective against the other and in the process gives primacy to expansion and excellence at the expense of inclusion. The stress on a largely unregulated framework for encouraging private players and foreign collaboration in higher education and on maximisation of cost recovery from students in the NKC recommendations is evidence for this.

The offer of one lakh scholarships by the NKC would cover only 1 per cent of the present student population in higher education. The Vice-Chancellors (VC), at the conference, recommended that there should be greater focus on the establishment of new institutions in smaller towns, rural and remote areas and backward areas where the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is lower than the national average.

The VC’s conference stressed the need for greater public funding and has virtually ruled out further fee hikes, the press note said.

National universities

The NKC has recommended the establishment of 50 national universities that will function as ‘exemplars for the rest of the nation.’ These institutions will not be burdened with affiliated colleges and will have the proper ambience for experimenting with the latest teaching-learning models.

The UGC conference on the other hand does not place emphasis on developing a few islands of excellence but speaks of raising average universities and colleges with a view to reduce the quality gap.

The Conference has also rejected the NKC’s recommendation for setting up an Independent Regulatory Authority for Higher Education (IRAHE).

The UGC would focus on disbursement of grants and maintenance of public institutions of higher learning. The VCs’ conference has declared that the UGC should be the sole regulatory authority for universities.

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