HIGHER EDUCATION
The Working Group on Higher Education reviewed the development in higher education and noted that as a result of the efforts i recent years, the growth of student enrolment has come down from 11% in the 60's to about 3.8% in the 70's. However during the last 5 years, the rate of growth has registered an upward trend and has been in the region of 6% per annum. during this period, efforts have been made to equip the universities and colleges with infrastructural facilities within available resources, and to ensure the maximum utilisation of the available facilities within available resources, and to ensure the maximum utilisation of the available facilities with a view to reduce the existing regional imbalances in the development of higher educa- tion. In the Sixth Plan, about 90 universities and 3200 colleges have been provided with assistance for additional infrastructural facili- ties and purchase of books and equipments. However, there still exists perceptible imbalances in the development of higher education at the regional and sub-regional levels and between rural and urban areas. Equalisation of educational opportunities is still a distant goal. There have been little or no attempts to re-organise the system. The problem of numbers as well as the existing rigidities of the system continue to affect the standard of education and its relevance to national needs.
For the Seventh Plan, the Working Group on higher education has empha- sised on the programme of non-formal education involving distance/open learning programmes on a massive scale to provide facilities for higher education for a substantial part of the projected additional enrolment (roughly over ten lakhs) restructuring of under-graduate courses to make them more relevant and meaningful in terms of national development goals; improvements in the quality and standard of higher education specially at post-graduate and research levels, support for research in universities both in terms of National R & D efforts and pursuit of excellence, and greater attention to the strengthening of existing infrastructure including management.
For achieving these objectives, the following programmes and thrust areas have been identified for higher education in the Seventh Five year Plan:
i) Re-organisation of under-graduate education to make it more relevant, based largely on the UGC guidelines, should be a programme of high priority. The new design for under graduate courses should be a foundation course involving 25% of the curriculum core courses involving 50% of the curriculum, limited to two subjects, and application-oriented courses accounting for the rest. Flexibility should be provided in the combination of the subjects. The objective of the application-oriented courses is not necessarily employment-orientation of graduates, but improvement in their employability. These courses should develop creativity in the students and equip them with the
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(Figures in Lakhs)
State Centre Total
Rs. Rs. Rs.
A. Expansion
1. Teaching Cost 73300 - 73300
2. Non-Teaching cost 31400 - 31400
3. Building cost 18000 - 18000
4. Science Laboratories
in new up-graded schools 12000 - 12000
TOTAL (A) 134700 - 134700
Quality Improvement and Other Schemes
1. Vocationalisation of
Education 17800 12600 30400
2. Socially Useful
Productivity Work - 400 400
3. Teacher training 5000 - 5000
4. Other Programmes - 2500 2500
5. Special schemes for Girls,
SC/ST and other weaker
sections of society - 6700 6700
6. Integrated Education
of Physically - 1500 1500
7. Open Learning 1600 - 1600
TOTAL (B) 24400 23700 48100
GRAND TOTAL (A and B) 159100 23700 182800
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skills and techniques which may help them in finding employment or facilitate self-employment. The foundation courses as well as the application- oriented components should provide value- orientation, and the latter should also aim at improving productivity and linking education with employment. The implementation of this new design for under-graduate courses would be possible only if the application-oriented part of the programme if locally developed and administered. The colleges should be given the necessary freedom and flexibility for development and conducting application-oriented courses, subject to the overall guidance of a Board of Under-Graduate Studies to be set up by each university. Efforts should be made to develop material for the foundation course at the national level so that the forces of national integration and unity can be strengthened.
ii) The demand for higher education would continue to rise in the coming years with the expansion of secondary education and increase in the aspirations of the people, particularly the first-generation learners. Till the programmes of vocationalisation at the secondary stage is successfully implemented, and the pressure on higher education reduced through an effective policy of delinking degrees from jobs, it would be necessary to provide facilities for higher education for all who demand it. This demand, cannot obviously be met by the existing institutions, nor can resources be allotted for a substantial expansion to meet this demand. While some provision has to be made for the expansion of the formal system, it is essential that a programme of non-formal education involving distance education/open learning system is taken up on a massive scale right from the beginning of the Seventh Plan, taking full advantage of the opportunities provided by INSAT-IB becoming operational so that the programme of distance education could be spread to all corners of the country. The establishment of a National Open University, as a pace setting institution with the responsibility for training of personnel, production of programmes and development of material for utilisation through the electronic media, should be considered. The University should function as a Nation Resource Centre responsible for coordination of programmes and development of models for all distance education programmes, documentation of information and organisation of appropriate research programmes. In addition to courses leading to degrees and diplomas, the open university should offer general enrichment programmes, besides programme designed to improve the knowledge, skills and productivity of serving personnel. The programme of the university should be flexible enough to permit the pace of progress of studies of individual students to meet their needs. A network of study centres should be provided for personal contact programmes and to supplement the efforts of the open university.
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iii) The six centres of educational technology proposed to be developed by UGC should serve as regional centres with a view to cover the entire country under this programme on regional basis. These centres should support distance/open teaching and learning programmes, correspondence courses and should generally be responsible for the production of software for educational technology and training of personnel for the purpose. These centres should also draw support form other agencies in the neighbourhood and involve the electronic media in a big way. Users's committees should be set up for each of these centres to advise it on the development of its programmes and activities. The Centre of Science and Technology Education being set up should also be developed as a resource centre for material development including software for classroom and telecast teaching and computer- based learning. Both radio and television should provide separate channels for educational programmes.
iv) Greater emphasis would have to be given in the Seventh Plan to equip the universities and colleges with the minimum facilities required for the maintenance of a reasonable level of standard. The UGC should initiate steps to evolve appropriate norms for the provision of physical facilities required for different courses offered by univer- sities and colleges and to provide those facilities in a phased manner. The State Governments should assume a greater responsibility for the development of the colleges specially those located in remote and backward areas.
v) Greater attention should be paid to improve the quality and standard of post-graduate education. The number of students joining the post-graduate courses should be restricted by selection on the basis of a National Merit Examination. The UGC should evolve norms to determine the admission capacity of each post-graduate course. These norms should be evolved with reference to the availability of personnel, library facilities and equipment. It would be ensured that no admission is made beyond the admission capacity so established. The structural reforms in under-graduate education would necessitate a review of the contents of the post-graduate courses. The subject panels of the UGC should formulate guidelines for various courses taking into account the reforms in under-graduate education. Teachers engaged in post-graduate courses should be enabled to take study leave to do research with provision for monitoring and evaluating their performances at regular intervals. At post-graduate level also distance/open education programmes should get a place of pride. The proposed open university should undertake this task.
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The research programmes in universities and colleges would have to be reviewed and oriented to make them more relevant and useful. Besides reviewing the value of fellowship, admission to the Ph.D. programmes should be regulated on the basis of admission test.
vi) In order to strengthen post-graduate education and research, measures like sharing of facilities, and exchange of personnel should be implemented. The development universities should play a special role in assisting those universities which are located in remote and backward areas in developing the latter's teaching and research capability. The programmes of Centres of Advance Studies and Departments of special assistance of the UGC should be further strengthened to achieve these objectives.
vii) While the universities have a special role in promoting basic research and research in the frontier areas of knowledge, it is equally important that they should be actively involved in Applied Research, especially in thrust areas and emerging fields. Equipped as the universities are with a high level of infrastructure and expertise in several disciplines, they are ideally suited for major involvement in nationally useful projects and every effort should be made to utilise this potential as envisaged in the National Policy on Education, and institutions for research should, as far as possible, function within the fold of universities or in intimate association with them.
viii) It is neither desirable nor feasible to equip every university with major research facilities especially in all advanced and sophisticated fields. Such facilities have, therefore, to be provided on a selective basis, as National or regional facilities which could be shared by a number of universities. The UGC has already a proposal to establish such common facilities in Scientific Documentation in Nuclear Science Research. Such common facilities in more areas should be major programme in the Seventh Plan, with will ensure better utilisation of available resources and eliminate the possibilities of dupli- cation in efforts. The University Service and Instrumentation Centres, set up by the UGC in the previous plans, should be further strengthened with appropriate research component in their work and linking their efforts with research laboratories and institutions in their neighbourhood. Group research projects, especially in thrust areas, should be encouraged. The special programme imitated in the Sixth Plan to strengthen post- graduate education and research in science and technology through selective support should be continued and strengthened.
ix) Training of teachers is one area in higher education which has not been given adequate attention in the past, except through organisation of seminars, summer institutes and conferences. The programme for re-organising under-graduate
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education in the Seventh Plan will require development of new methodologies and techniques of teachings, learning and evaluation. The UGC should review the existing programmes of faculty improvement and re-formulate them as more effective teacher training programmes in the nature of pre- service, in-service, enrichment and professional improvement programmes, wherever necessary through institutionalised arrangements to be provided at special centres. The recommendations of the Teachers' Commission which are likely to be available shortly, should also be taken into account, while drawing up programmes of teacher's training for higher education in the Seventh Five year Plan.
x) To introduce reforms in universities and college, effective measures for de-centralisation of the administration and academic processes should be undertaken. The universities should encourage colleges to become autonomous so that the present stalemate in the implementation of the programme (only 20 colleges have so far become autonomous) is broken. Simultaneously regional or sub-regional centres should be set up by each university for a cluster of colleges with adequate powers for deciding the administrative and academic matters in respect of the colleges under their charge. Similarly, within each university, a greater measure of delegation of authority to centres and departments is urgently called for. These reforms in structures together with the seriousness in the re-organisation of under-graduate courses should be a necessary condition for all development grants to all universities in the Seventh Plan.
xi) To develop beneficial linkages among education, employment and economic development, some statutory mechanism should be established in each university with representation from the university, community and various development sectors. For this, a Planning Board may be established in each university as a statutory authority, to advise the development of the university, to review educational programmes, to develop new teaching- learning processes and initiate programmes of innovation involving participation in developmental activities. Development Sectors should earmark a part of their allocations for manpower development and make it available to the educational agencies.
xii) Universities, by and large, are not in a position to respond to change partly, owing to the inflexibility of the system and its structures, which inhibit all innovation. Since the present models and structures of the university system have failed to deliver the goods, it is desirable to re- organise the university system and its management so that they could respond positively to the national development objectives. This would require very substantial changes in the functional processes, structures, policies and management pattern followed by the universities, involving inter-alia changes in legislation. The UGC and the Central Government