Kerala - Kochi   

Panel to suggest varsities’ character in draft proposal

KOCHI: The committee for formulating a higher education policy for the State will soon recommend to the government not to convert any university in the State into any other kind of institution.

The recommendation will be one among several proposals to be mooted by the committee set up by the State Higher Education Council to draft the policy.

Sources in the council said the meeting of the committee to be held during the last week of December would discuss the issue of retaining the existing character of universities.

The issue of converting the Cochin University of Science and Technology into an Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology would be taken up for detailed discussion, sources said.

It is reliably learnt that the draft policy on higher education would include a proposal for not changing the nature of courses, as part of upgrading or converting a university. A suggestion not to amend the Act or statute would be included in the draft.

Committee sources pointed out that it would not be fair to term conversion of Cusat an upgrade. It would be like killing a university.

A university should have courses in all disciplines, they said.

Pointing out that even great institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology were known for its excellence in subjects such as physics and chemistry and not for engineering subjects alone, committee sources said that no university should end up as a mere engineering institution.

The committee would recommend that an engineering college or a group of engineering colleges could be developed into an IIEST. It would suggest to the government not to encourage setting up any more language universities in the State.

The draft policy would highlight the fact that the language universities in the country had failed to achieve its actual objectives.

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