Varsities must be categorised into three domains: Dr Kasturirangan

BENGALURU: A recommendation has been made to categorise higher education institutions into research universities, teaching universities and autonomous degree-giving institutions, said NEP drafting committee head and former ISRO chairman Dr Kasturirangan here on Wednesday.

Speaking at a national conference on NEP -- ‘Decoding Contemporary Changes Affecting 21st Century Higher Education in India: In the Context of NEP 2020’ -- at St Joseph’s College of Commerce, he said there needs to be a restructuring of higher education institutions as well as integration of teacher’s education into higher education institutions, rather than having separate teachers’ training institutes.

“We have around 40,000 higher education institutions, but they are fragmented and many are suboptimal, in terms of number of students, teachers or infrastructure. Based on this, we have made a recommendation on restructuring institutes. This is to have three broad classes of higher education institutions - research universities, teaching universities and autonomous degree-giving institutions,” he said. Research-oriented universities will give equal importance to research and teaching, while teaching universities would emphasise on teaching.

“All school teaching must be done by teachers who have had a stint in higher education institutions. Teachers must also have a holistic and multidisciplinary education, there’s no reason why teachers should not be trained and oriented in places where graduates study subjects like engineering and law,” he said.

FORMER VCS’ FORUM SUGGESTS AMENDING STATE UNIVERSITIES ACT
BENGALURU: With the state government due to amend the Karnataka State Universities Act 2000, in accordance with NEP 2020, the Forum of Former Vice-Chancellors of Karnataka (FVCK) has offered its own suggestions. They have asked that all vacancies, which constitute nearly 50% of faculty positions, must be filled, stating that guest lecturers cannot be of significant help for ritualistic teaching. They also sought developmental grants for updation of infrastructure in universities, a compulsory Public Relations Officer (PRO) position in every university, and for the government to act as a facilitator rather than controller of universities.