Panel proposes legal entity for modern education in state

In view of a daunting task of balancing varied aspects of modern education and dynamic R&D environment in Maharashtra, a committee has recommended setting up of an umbrella body to devise use of technology and to raise finances for higher education in the state. A report on new legal structure for governance of public universities in Maharashtra has recommended creation of the Maharashtra State Council for Higher Education and Development (MAHED), an umbrella body to plan, to shape, to co-ordinate, to supervise, to devise use of technology and to raise finances for higher education.

A committee headed by Arun Nigavekar, former chairman of University Grant Commission (UGC), studied in detail the functioning of ten major public universities that are situated at Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Amravati, Jalgaon, Nanded and Solapur. According to the panel, Maharashtra has a daunting task of balancing varied aspects of modern education and dynamic R&D environment. The Nigvekar Committee has proposed to create an over-arching policy for the entire higher education sector and it also needs to have an umbrella organisation which would plan and coordinate its implementation across the state. Though the state has such an organisation in Maharashtra State Council for Higher Education, it is mostly dormant.

"We are reviving it with a new title Maharashtra State Commission for Higher Education and Development (MAHED), recommending it an umbrella role at policy and operative level to fulfill the expectations of the five major stakeholders namely the students and the parents, the faculty and the non-teaching staff, the employers and the society," the report which was submitted to the state government last week said. The proposal is to make MAHED a stand-alone, independent legal entity with appropriate and adequate autonomy. It would be funded by the state government. It would be run by academicians, scientists, technocrats, business and industry experts and financial experts. MAHED would work as a conduit for funding of the public universities by Maharashtra government.

The independent body would also decide upon necessity for expansion and if satisfied grant permissions for the expansion and creation of colleges and their academic programs on the recommendations of a particular university. It would have powers to address the grievances of the teachers and employees, and also the grievances related to the admissions and fee structure. MAHED will be a link between the state and HRD ministry and various other education decisions making councils in the field of higher and professional education at the Centre as well as with the Planning Commission. The legal entity would be the apex body to plan, work on the funding policy, create an operative structure for the education system and monitor growth and the quality of the education system as a whole, the report said.

Nigavekar Committee also noted that there is a wrong perception that general graduates are of no consequence in vibrant economies. However, public universities still have a major role to play in the new types of economies. However, on Wednesday they are under a cloud of non-performance. There is also a feeling that the government is slowly pulling out as regarding providing funds for the public higher education domain which was reflected in the grant-in-aid that is provided to institutions of higher education; it just covers the salary component of the institutional budget.

Among other unhealthy financial discrepancies is one where the teacher community that has emerged through the existing triple salary structure in many of the aided general colleges. This certainly affects the quality of teaching in college.

Moreover, the government has stopped giving development grant to colleges in the last few years and it also falters in giving 'fees-grant' for reserved and economically backward communities in time, the panel observed.