UGC Chairman and veteran academician, Professor M. Jagadesh Kumar, while discussing a vista of issues including the New Education Policy and on plans to enable overseas varsities set up campuses in the country, said that the newly introduced dual degrees will make global education affordable for Indian students.
" Shortage of quality teaching faculty is one of the many issues presently confronting the higher education system. The total number of sanctioned teaching posts in Central Universities under the purview of UGC is 18,956, with 12,776 posts filled and 6180 posts lying vacant. The occurring of vacancies and filling up is a continuous process. UGC continuously monitors it with the universities. However, the onus of filling up the teaching posts lies on Central Universities, autonomous bodies created under Acts of Parliament. UGC requests all Central Universities to fill vacancies soon in a mission mode. Universities are hiring ad-hoc faculty, guest faculty and contract faculty. Further, UGC has taken a new initiative to bring the industry and other professional expertise into the academic institutions through a new category of positions called ‘Professor of Practice’. UGC has also framed the guidelines for empanelment of adjunct-faculty in universities and colleges.
Universities from the USA, UK, France, Australia and Italy have expressed their interest. It is expected that once this regulatory provision is announced, well-performing foreign universities featuring in the global rankings will come forward to apply. NEP 2020 has envisioned that top universities in the world will be facilitated to operate in India. Enabling provisions for the setting up and operating campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions (FHEIs) in India will provide an international dimension to higher education, permit Indian students to obtain foreign qualifications at an affordable cost, and make India an attractive global study destination.
The UGC will facilitate the brand building of Indian HEIs by promoting them to open their campuses abroad to strengthen their international presence. The National Digital University, likely to be established on the hub and spoke model, will offer a whole gamut of qualifications and bring together various universities with no upper cap on the number of seats so that +2 passed out students can access higher education. The National Higher Education Qualification Framework will also be implemented in new year. It will ease the integration of vocational education into higher education. Further, launching the National Credit Framework as a single meta-framework will integrate credits from school, higher and vocational education, and experiential learning. The universities will also implement the option of multiple entry and exit facilitated through the Academic Bank of Credits. Universities will be encouraged to incorporate the Indian Knowledge System into higher education. Getting a Twinning, Joint, or Dual Degree with academic collaborations between Indian and foreign HEIs will help Indian students get internationally relevant education in India.
So far, 49 foreign HEIs are collaborating with Indian HEIs. UGC has also approached the Ambassadors and Heads of Missions of nearly 66 countries whose universities are eligible for collaboration. These include the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, Singapore, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Malaysia, etc. Meetings with select US universities with the support of the Indian Mission and German universities in collaboration with DAAD were organised.
UGC has recently increased the seats for international students to 25 per cent in HEIs, apart from the international students in exchange programmes. Each faculty member can also take two international students in PhD programme as supernumerary positions. The HEIs have established the Office for International Affairs at their campus, which will function as a single point of contact for international students. It will address grievances and help them network with fellow students. Fellowships are being provided to international students by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). Also, the ‘Study in India’ initiative of the Ministry of Education caters to the needs of international students seeking admission in India.
Several universities are working to introduce this FYUP. They have the freedom to create their implementation mechanism through their academic and executive councils to facilitate the students to pursue their research interests, creativity, entrepreneurship skills, and innovative skills, leading to better employability.
The FYUP is a tool to implement holistic and multidisciplinary education. It provides an opportunity to focus on the chosen major and minors as per the student’s choices. With the introduction of the ‘Curriculum and Credit Framework for Undergraduate Programme’ by the UGC, the universities have the option of providing an FYUP so that the students can study extensively one or more specialised areas of interest.
