UGC Asks Universities To Set Up NEP Cell, Monitor Progress Of Several Initiatives

Centre’s move to scrap the UGC receives thumb’s down from academicians

The Decision of the centre to scrap the UGC from the higher education sector and introduce a new regulating body has not been appraised by the academicians, instead, have questioned the involvement of the politicians in the matters of higher education. The decision to replace the UGC with the HECI was announced by the Ministry of HRD last week. The new HECI will focus only on the academic matters and the monetary grants would be a concern of the ministry, as per the draft issued by the ministry which has been placed under the public concern to get feedback from the stakeholders. Jayaprakash Gandhi, A noted academician said that the new body will be structured in a way that will give the political parties more autonomy in decision making on matters of higher education that should be taken only by a bunch of people who have the power to take the country forward like core educationalist and academicians. This move has also been condemned by the Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) that how this decision will increase the interference of the government in the matters of higher education instead of decreasing it. Rajib Ray, the president of DUTA  says that the current structure is being totally replaced without providing a comprehensive account of the Founding goals, achievements, shortcomings and their possible causes and the measures that were taken or were needed to be taken to improve the health of the UGC. Kapil Sharma, president of IGNOU argued that the government is making attempts at every aspect right from the process of admission to that of research scholars. He added that there are loopholes in UGC’s functioning but these should have been dealt with on an institution-specific basis. The government should not interfere in this and should be done specifically by academicians.

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