Yashpal panel wants single body to regulate higher education

The HEC,as envisaged by the committee,will be an advisory body to the government on policy issues,prepare an annual report on the state of Higher Education,serve as a think tank for the same,create appropriate norms and structures for accreditation of universities,create a curricular reform framework and also establish transparent norms for setting up and closing down of institutions.

The Committee,set up to advise on rejuvenation and restructuring of Higher Education in India,has placed strong emphasis on undergraduate education and the primacy of the University. It criticised the neglect of state universities at the cost of a couple of central varsities and stand-alone institutes.

“Restoring the primacy of the university and ending the era of stand-alone institutions and central varsities is critical. What flows logically from all this is the abolition of the UGC and creation of a HEC with self-regulatory varsities. The most demeaning act done to the university system and to the office of the Vice-Chancellor was incidentally very recent — when 15 V-Cs were appointed to new central varsities on application basis without and proper search cum selection process,” a member of the committee told The Indian Express.

The committee,terming state universities ‘the backbone of higher education in India’ has said that these had been ‘shabbily treated’ in terms of funding and infrastructure,and has recommended that they be accorded the same benefits as Central universities,allowing them an ‘optimum size’ and ensuring that they are free from political and commercial interference.

The report,while lauding the success of the IIT model,suggested they be made ‘models of all round excellence like the famous Massachusetts Institute of technology in the US’. It said that the isolation of engineering from other streams must be redressed and IITs must “assume the functions of full fledged universities without losing their unique character”.

To ensure autonomy and singularity of universities,the committee has advised that varsities be made responsible for academic content of professional courses and professional bodies be divested of their academic functions.

The recommendations

• Creating a single Higher Education Commission to replace multiple regulators

• Abolition of UGC,AICTE

• Divesting MCI,DCI and other professional regulatory bodies of academic functions

• Scrapping deemed university system

• Reviving undergraduate education

• Restoring primacy of the university by providing it self-regulation and autonomy

• Adding work experience and internships to every discipline

• Equal status and benefits to central and state universities

• IITs and IIMs to expand scope and function as full fledged universities