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| 'We do need an over-arching regulatory body with a national perspective' | |
| Q&A: Sukhdeo Thorat, Chairman, UGC | | Leslie D'Monte And Kirtika Suneja / New Delhi June 08, 2009, 0:21 IST | |
The University Grants Commission (UGC) is facing heavy weather of late. Be its role over the status of deemed universities or appointment of vice chancellors for the 15 new Central Universities, the regulatory body has come in for criticism. In a chat with LESLIE D’MONTE and KIRTIKA SUNEJA, UGC Chairman Sukhdeo Thorat explains his stand on a host of issues while outlining UGC’s vision for higher education. Edited excerpts:
The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) and Yashpal Committee have recommended the setting up of a higher independent regulatory authority rather than having multiple regulatory bodies like the UGC or AICTE. What’s your reaction?
I agree with the general tenor of these recommendations but am doubtful if they are feasible. Indeed, there’s a general feeling that the regulatory bodies and councils in the country are fragmented. For instance, there is the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and UGC for general education — around 13-14 such councils attached with different ministries that work independently but should have a national perspective. However, there are many overlapping and common issues faced by these regulatory bodies.
Therefore, we do need an over-arching regulatory body with a national perspective that can look at problems in an integrated manner. There can be many mechanisms like having a higher education council which encompasses all these fragmented bodies while letting them retain their identity. As an alternative, the government could also think of a coordination committee comprising members from these bodies to look at issues in an integrated fashion. I favour of the latter.
Deemed-to-be-universities have come under a cloud. What has gone wrong?
There are 125 deemed universities as of now, of which 33 are government varsities and the rest are private. UGC gives grants to these government universities while the private ones are self-financing universities. The latter is increasing in number. We currently have 150 applications lying with us. The problem, when handling this big a number, is that the UGC has only set guidelines for the deemed universities. They are not binding, and hence things can go wrong. For instance, many of these universities start courses without our permission. So, there is a definite need for rules and regulations that are binding.
The UGC had also expressed concern over some universities having more than necessary colleges affiliated to them. Have any concrete steps been taken in this regard?
Affiliated universities are usually state universities that sometimes are difficult to manage because they are like full-fledged universities. So, these might have more than 100 colleges that is burdensome for the university’s administration. Hence, there is a need to fix the number of colleges per university depending on the number of students — 50 colleges is a manageable number. Moreover, we have recommended carving out more state universities from the existing ones to make the task of managing them easy. For instance, three universities were carved out of Osmania University.
With the 11 th Five Year Plan focusing on education, what academic reforms are being initiated?
As of now, only 0.37 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is spent on higher education. This has to increase if academic reforms are to take place. Indeed, there has been a seven-fold increase in spending on higher education — from Rs 8,000 crore in the Tenth Five Year Plan to Rs 48,000 crore in the Eleventh Plan. But one area of concern is that the gross enrolment ratio (GER) currently stands at 11 per cent. Our immediate goal is to raise the enrolment ratio to at least 15 per cent, while our long-term goal is to achieve a GER of 22-25 per cent (which is the worldwide average), by the Twelfth Plan.
Meanwhile, academic reforms will include focus on increasing finances; trying to make higher education more inclusive; increasing the quality of higher education; and increasing the relevance of courses. Last, but not the least, we are looking at measures to lure more people into teaching and research. With the Pay Commission hikes for academics too, I believe teaching will become more attractive.
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