State Assembly clears Maharashtra Universities Act

The Maharashtra Assembly today passed the Maharashtra Universities Act, seen as a major reform in the state's higher education sector.
The Act would allow Universities to conduct Board of Studies (BoS) elections, which were held up by the government for the last one-and-a-half years.
The amended bill was tabled by State Education Minister Vinod Tawde in the House. He said, the bill was cleared by a joint panel of 25 legislators from both Houses after making as many as 56 amendments.
The panel also comprised two former education ministers, college owners and experts from various fields.
Deliberating on the new amendments, the Minister said the changes are aimed at extending maximum benefits to the students.

He said now BoS would also have merit rank holder in the respective faculty examinations as one of the members.

"So far only senior members were allowed to run the BoS. But introduction of fresh faces would make it a complete body," said the minister.
The minister added that earlier, students pursuing sports had to skip examinations if they were busy with various games. "Now, the universities could conduct separate exams for them, thus saving their precious academic year," said Tawde.
Same would be applicable for the handicapped students coming under Divyang category (handicapped), he added.
Even choice-based credit system (CBCS) would be made flexible so that Arts stream student could study subjects like Biochemistry," he said.