The expert committee that was formed by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) to elicit opinions from vice-chancellors on the implementation of the National Education Policy, 2020 is expected to submit its report to the Ministry of Education in April and three States – West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala – have apparently refused to implement the NEP.
The AIU had prepared a questionnaire and circulated among all the VCs of 1,000-plus universities in all States, to seek their views on NEP. The questionnaire was also circulated among the top officials in the States. The VCs from three States have expressed opposition to the implementation of NEP, according to AIU.
Disclosing this in Mysuru on Monday, AIU PresidentG. Thiruvasagam said, “The three States will realise the value of NEP and may implement it later. The AIU welcomes the implementation of NEP by other States, including Karnataka. The committee report with the opinions of each VC will be submitted in April.”
He, however, said that there were no guidelines on NEP’s implementation either from the government or from the UGC and sought clarity from the UGC on the ways and means of its implementation.
The AIU president said implementation needs to be flexible with greater autonomy to the universities for its execution. Some universities have started implementing NEP seeing its benefits but the universities are looking for clarity, he added.
“With no guidelines, many universities haven’t implemented NEP. However, NAAC and NIRF are grading the universities keeping in focus the NEP. Some 40-plus questions are included in the manual for the universities’ assessment which attracts 100 marks. The universities are losing marks as they need time and questions on NEP for assessment may affect grades of the universities.” Until clarity and guidelines are obtained, NAAC and NIRF shouldn’t include questions on NEP for the assessment, he suggested.
The “zero-activity” years in universities over COVID-19 are also being counted in the 5-year assessment. Here too, the universities lose marks as the two years were zero years for the universities. The NAAC should not consider those two years for its assessment, the AIU head pleaded.
He also sought uniform tenure of five years for the vice-chancellors as many States have different tenures with some having five and a few others having three and four years. The VCs need five years to implement their vision, he felt.
He also suggested that all private and deemed-to-be universities must be referred to as “universities” as their contributions are equally important with the country having over 500 such universities.
VCs’ conference
After a gap of nearly two decades, the national conference of vice-chancellors is happening in the State as Mysuru is hosting the three-day conference and the 95 th annual meet here from Wednesday in collaboration with the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and with the support of the United Nations. The theme of the conference is “Realising sustainable development goals (SDGs) through higher education institutions.”
Giving details at a press conference here on Monday, UoM Vice-Chancellor G. Hemantha Kumar said around 300 vice-chancellors are participating and it includes 150 VCs who will participate through virtual mode. The conference will be inaugurated on March 23 at 9.30 a.m. at the Crawford Hall. Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu and Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot will speak. The sessions of the conference will be held at Vigyan Bhavan.
The AIU is a registered body to promote and represent higher education in Indian universities on national and international forums as it aims to improve standards of instruction, examination, research, textbooks, scholarly publication etc.
AIU Secretary General Pankaj Mittal, Registrar Shivappa and others were present.
