MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SMT. SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)
(a) to (d): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) to (d) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.207 FOR 09.05.2016 ASKED BY SHRI LAXMI NARAYAN YADAV, HON’BLE MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, REGARDING EDUCATION REFORMS.
(a) & (b): Higher education reforms for enhancing quality along with equity and access is a continuous process. Education, being in the concurrent list, is the responsibility of both the Central as well as the State Governments. The Government initiates education reforms after consultations with the stakeholders, including State Governments and academics.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) is implementing several schemes for improving the standard of education/ teaching in universities and colleges in the country.
The UGC undertakes maintenance of standards in education and teaching and quality assurance in Universities, Deemed to be Universities and Colleges through the following mechanisms, namely: framing regulations and schemes and; disbursing grants to the eligible institutions. The UGC has notified several regulations with the objective of sustenance and improvement in the quality of higher education and for undertaking academic reforms. The regulations are available at http://www.ugc.ac.in/page/UGC-Regulations.aspx. In order to encourage research and development in the country, UGC has laid out schemes, awards, fellowships, chairs and programmes under which financial assistance is provided to institutions of higher education as well as faculty members working therein to undertake quality research covering areas of knowledge across disciplines including revival & promotion of indigenous languages. These schemes are at http://www.ugc.ac.in/page/XII-Plan-Guidelines.aspx .
In addition to above, UGC has launched guidelines for Choice-based credit System (CBCS) for enhancing student mobility and providing a wider choice in subjects and for facilitation of quality education through innovation and improvements in curriculum, teaching-learning process, examination and evaluation systems.
(c): The UGC has informed that its schemes are reviewed and monitored with the help of reported progress, presentations to its expert committees, etc.
The Central Government has reviewed the schemes of the UGC with the help of Expert Committees. The Department of Higher Education has also reviewed the impact and outcomes of the UGC schemes. As a result several initiatives have been taken, namely: (i) policy direction to the UGC to amend the UGC(Minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers and other academic staff in universities and colleges and other measures for the maintenance of standards in higher education) Regulations, 2010 to implement modified Academic Performance Indicator (API) scheme and prescribe minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers; (ii) policy direction to the UGC to not to discontinue the non-National Eligibility Test(NET) fellowships; (iii) policy direction to the UGC to establish an Inter University Centre on Teacher education in Banaras Hindu University to strengthen the University system in teacher education; (iv) notifying of UGC (Furnishing of Information by Universities) Rules, 2015 for making it mandatory for Universities to comply with new accounting standards and upload information on the All India Survey on Higher Education; (v) framing of UGC (Prevention, prohibition and redressal of sexual harassment of women employees and students in higher educational institutions) Regulations, 2015 for ensuring a safe environment for both women employees and students in campuses and excursions from higher educational institutions; (vi) ensuring UGC fund release to Universities and Colleges through Public Financial Management System from 1st April, 2016 onwards; (vii) Strengthening of grievance redressal mechanism in UGC and launch of Student grievance redressal portal by the UGC in which details of nodal officers of all universities is available; (viii) migrating all UGC fellowships/ scholarships on DBT mode from 16-17 onwards; etc.
(d): Education reforms have been undertaken by the UGC by notifying the CBCS for enhancing student mobility and providing a wider choice in subjects and for facilitation of quality education through innovation and improvements in curriculum, teaching-learning process, examination and evaluation systems; notifying a credit framework for skill development for aligning skill education with formal education and launching several skill development schemes; framing new regulations and specifying the list of degrees which institutions can offer; enhancing the coverage of scholarships/fellowships; incentivizing quality; undertaking equity promotion on a wider scale; disbursing grants for infrastructure development for wider access; strengthening university-industry linkage; process reforms, student centric initiatives etc.
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