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V-Cs chart future course of action
R. RAVIKANTH REDDY
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‘XIth plan must concentrate on giving special assistance to institutions located in underprivileged regions’
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The role of private players in higher education is the key to achieve the targeted goal of taking higher education to the neglected sections and its expansion. But a strong regulatory framework was the need of the hour to ensure that the purpose remains intact and not exploited commercially.
This was one of the key recommendations of the two-day national Vice Chancellors conference on Development of Higher Education held at the national capital recently. More than 300 Vice Chancellors of various institutions from across the country expressed their views on various issues concerning higher education. The suggestions would now reflect in the Government’s higher education policy in the XIth plan.
Public investment
It was insisted upon that the strategies for expansion 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. The VCs reiterated that mere expansion in institutions and intake capacity shall not necessarily make higher education inclusive. This will require a proactive approach and strategies for removing the regional and social imbalances.
Establishment of new universities and colleges should be in areas that have Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) lower than the national average was suggested apart from strengthening and expanding existing universities and colleges that are located in areas that have GER lower than the national average.
On the key issue of inclusion, they felt that the XIth plan must concentrate on giving special assistance to institutions located in under-privileged regions and also to those that have higher proportion of neglected social groups such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Minorities, Girls, Physically Challenged in their student and staff population. It was emphasised that the strategies for inclusion must also include the physically challenged – departments of disability studies in all the universities.
Regulatory mechanism
As regards internationalisation, participants agreed with the recommendations of the regional conferences that it was inevitable but a level playing ground should be provided for all the players. Recommending a strong regulatory mechanism the Vice Chancellors felt that internationalisation of higher education must not adversely impinge on the goal of equity and quality.
If the nation has to keep pace with its goals in higher education, the participants made some important recommendations on selection of Vice Chancellors arguing that leadership in universities plays vital role in promoting quality and excellence. Thus they felt that Vice Chancellors should be appointed on merit taking into account proven administrative and academic capabilities. The search committees should comprise people of repute and other external forces should not be allowed to play part in the selection of vice chancellors.
Dismissing the argument that crisis in higher education was due to lack of resources, they felt it was more because of the fact that it was not on the priority list of the Central and State Governments. The resource constraints would continue to remain unless it is put on the priority list.
Restructuring of courses
On the issue of conventional courses being neglected at the cost of market-oriented courses, the VCs argued that it was time conventional courses are restructured and offered in a combination of different disciplines for students to get a degree that can fetch jobs as well as pursue courses of their interest.
“Focus on professional, technical and market-oriented courses must not be at the cost of humanities and social sciences. Universities should not be reduced to skill-development centres and their focus should be intense engagements in intellectual activities,” the conference opined.
The Vice Chancellors expressed concern over depleting quality faculty and ban on recruitments. The inability to attract good faculty was expressed by almost everyone and the Government responded positively promising financial assistance to universities and colleges for International faculty exchange.
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Education Plus
Karnataka
Chennai
Coimbatore
Hyderabad
Madurai
Tiruchirapalli
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
|
