The University Grants Commission will expectedly on Friday make public the final document on “Guidelines for Transforming Higher Education Institutions into Multidisciplinary Institutions”, thereby making it possible for single-stream institutions to transform into large multidisciplinary universities and autonomous degree-awarding HEIs, including dual degrees.
As per the guidelines the objectives are to “transform single-stream institutions into large multidisciplinary universities and autonomous degree-awarding HEIs” and “strengthen institutional infrastructure necessary for multidisciplinary education and research”.
University Grants Commission Chairman Prof. M. Jagadesh Kumar, in his foreword, says “the quintessence of HEIs, as envisioned in the NEP 2020, is one which builds vibrant communities of scholars and peers, break down harmful silos between disciplines and enables students to become well-rounded individuals.
“However, a substantial number of HEIs in the country are either single stream institutions or multidisciplinary institutions with rigid disciplinary boundaries”.
The University Grants Commission committee under the chairmanship of Prof R P Tiwari suggested multiple ways such as collaboration, merging and clustering between institutions to achieve the characteristics of a multidisciplinary institution, said Kumar.
The guidelines will help State Governments and Universities to frame appropriate rules/policies
Colleges or universities will have the option of collaborating to offer dual degrees. Colleges affiliated with universities can elevate their status to that of degree-awarding autonomous colleges by offering multidisciplinary education. Collaboration between two institutions for the award of dual degree facilitates students enrolled in an HEI, as per the document.
HEIs will be expected to conduct student-induction programmes to create awareness about various learning pathways and career opportunities; to register in the Academic Bank of Credit (ABC), and adopt online courses, in addition to other collaboration with other HEIs, it says.
The multidisciplinary TUs and RUs will be universities with 3,000 or more students.
“Given that by 2035 all affiliated colleges should become degree-awarding multi-disciplinary autonomous institutions, it is necessary to develop a road map to transform all affiliated colleges to attain the status, either alone or through collaboration with nearby institutions in the form of clusters or by becoming a constituent part of a university as envisioned in NEP 2020.
“The affiliated colleges need to achieve the degree-awarding status by becoming large multidisciplinary autonomous colleges or by becoming part of the cluster to become a large multi-disciplinary HEI,” according to the guidelines.
The policy also suggests opening departments needed for multidisciplinary subjects, including Languages, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Indology, Art, Dance, Theatre, Education, Mathematics, Statistics, Pure and Applied Sciences, Sociology, Economics, Sports, Translation and Interpretation.
Types of HEIs envisaged
- Multidisciplinary research-intensive universities (RUs)
- Multidisciplinary teaching-intensive universities (TUs)
- Degree-awarding multi-disciplinary autonomous colleges (smaller than a university)
Standards prescribed by the University Grants Commission or by the concerned Statutory or Regulatory bodies such as All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), National Medical Commission (NMC), Dental Council of India (DCI), National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE), Bar Council of India (BCI) and Indian Nursing Council (INC), etc. in terms of academic and physical infrastructure, qualification of teachers, duration of a programme, intake, eligibility, admission procedures, fees, curriculum and programme implementation, assessment and evaluation, among other conditions are applicable.
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