Examine if units of pol parties should be allowed on campuses,

There should be an "examination" about whether to permit on university campuses the units of political parties or groups based on caste or communities, a government-appointed panel has said against the backdrop of the controversies surrounding JNU and Hyderabad University.
Among a host of other recommendations, the Committee headed by former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian has also suggested that political activity on campuses should not affect academic activity.
"The Committee recommends a careful and non-emotional examination of the issue of permitting chapters of national political parties, or caste/community based organizations within campuses of universities," said the panel appointed by the HRD ministry for making recommendations for evolution of a New Education Policy (NEP).

The panel's recommendations assume significance in the backdrop of massive controversies related to Hyderabad University and Jawaharlal Nehru University.
At present, BJP-linked ABVP and Congress-associated NSUI are both active on campuses across the country.
The panel has also sought a debate on the "desirability of allowing students to continue in campuses for long periods, even after the normal schedules for each courses, or preparation of working for PhD etc is over."

"The Committee recognizes the great importance of unfettered generation of ideas, free speech and association in university campuses; it wishes to draw the impact in many circumstances of these on the rights of the students who are keen to pursue their academic goals in a time bound manner, in which they have invested heavily in time, energy and emotions," the panel said in its report.

Another key recommendation of the panel is that there should be one unified national level examination for admission to each type of professional course be it engineering, architecture, management or other streams to save the students from applying in multiple exams.
"There is clear need to rationalize the system of entrance examinations to professional courses. A note needs to be taken of the recent decision of the Supreme Court to have national common admission tests for medical institutions in the country," the Committee said.
The panel has also suggested that a National Fellowship
Fund, primarily designed to support the tuition fees, learning material and living expenses for about 10 lakh students every year should be created.

The scholarships from this fund should be made available to students belonging to the economically weaker sections, specifically those below the poverty line, it said.
The committee has also suggested a separate national talent scholarship scheme to be administered after class 12 should be set up for meritorious students of all categories selected through a national level examination to be linked with this scheme.
The panel has noted that at present there are more than 400 medical colleges in the country, nearly half of them are in the government sector. The average annual growth in under-graduate in medical seats is around 5 percent and for post-graduate 2 per cent.

Even this growth is not evenly spread, most of it concentrated in southern and western states. More public investment is needed for starting medical colleges in deficient regions, the panel has said.
"The private sector needs to be encouraged to set up medical colleges for which incentives, including minimum requirement of land, need to be considered," the report said.
The committee has also said that there have been complaints about the corruption and malpractices in the grant of recognition and approval to new medical colleges by Medical Council of India (MCI).
"The MCI has elected representatives who have shown more interest in feathering their constituencies than looking after the interest of medical education. The quality of medical education has suffered due to political and financial vested interests in MCI," the report says.

It suggests that the existing framework of medical education needs significant restructuring.
"Entrenched interests of different kinds should be kept away from the functions of inspection, verification and standard-setting, as well as approval for opening new institutions," the committee report says.