Standard of Higher Educational Institutes – Rajya Sabha question

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Standard of Higher Educational Institutes – Rajya Sabha question

Improvement of standards of higher education and upgradation of infrastructure is an on-going endeavour and the Central Government has been making a constant effort in this direction.

The Central Government has launched several new initiatives viz. National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), Impacting Research Innovation & Technology (IMPRINT), Uchchatar Avishkar Yojna (UAY), Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) & Global Research Interactive Network (GRIN) in the field of education for the qualitative development of education in the country.

The project Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) is intended to provide massive open online courses (MOOCs) to the students across the country and thereby expanding the reach of best quality education to students using the ICT tools.

An Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) has also been established to give a major push for creation of high quality infrastructure in premier educational institutions.

The UGC has issued guidelines for autonomous colleges during the 12th Plan Period for promoting academic excellence of autonomous college.

Under this an autonomous college will have the freedom to determine and prescribe its own course of study and syllabi, use modern tools of educational technology to achieve higher standards and greater creativity.

The UGC undertakes maintenance of standards in teaching, research and quality assurance in Universities, Deemed to be Universities and Colleges through framing and notifying regulations, schemes and disbursing grants to the eligible institutions.

The UGC has notified several regulations with a view to sustain and improve the quality of higher education and to undertake academic reforms such as the introduction of a semester system, the regular updating of curricula and Choice Based Credit Systems (CBCS).

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) too has taken such measures by issuing the Regulations for Collaboration & Partnerships between Indian and Foreign Universities/Institutions in the field of Technical Education, Research and Training. It has also notified Regulations making accreditation mandatory for all technical institutions.

AICTE has also launched Start-up Policy to promote students driven start-ups in AICTE approved Technical Institutions which also involves industry-academia interaction.

The Ministry also launched a scheme for research parks and start-ups and incubation centers within the Centrally Funded Technical Institutions.

Under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), the overall quality of existing State higher educational institutions is sought to be improved by ensuring their conformity to prescribed norms and standards and adoption of accreditation as a mandatory quality assurance framework.

Certain academic, administrative and governance reforms are a precondition for receiving funding under RUSA.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development, in consultation with University Grants Commission (UGC) has formulated draft UGC (Declaration of Government Educational Institutions as Institutions of Eminence) Guidelines, 2017 for 10 public institutions and draft UGC (Institutions of Eminence Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2017 for 10 private institutions.

These institutions are proposed to be named as ‘Institutions of Eminence’. The selection of Institutions of Eminence shall be made only after the Guidelines and Regulations are notified.


This information was given by the Minister of State (HRD), Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey today in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question.