2 Sep : As efforts are on to set up 14 central universities of world class standards, the National Knowledge Commission has suggested that these institutions should have the autonomy to set the students’ fee and raise funds from industry and overseas sources.
The NKC has sent a letter to the University Grants Commission, which is preparing a blueprint for these proposed universities, suggesting incorporation of certain critical issues in the concept note for these institutions.
The universities should be allowed to use its facilities and alumni network for raising funds, the NKC said.The universities should follow the policy of "needs-blind admission" to ensure that an applicant’s ability or inability to pay should not influence the admission decisions.
The NKC, headed by Sam Pitroda, has also suggested a host of scholarships, free-ships, bursaries and awards for the economically disadvantaged students.The government last year decided to set up 14 central universities aimed at world class standards.
These universities are to come up in Pune, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Mysore, Vishakhapatnam, Gandhinagar, Jaipur, Patna, Bhopal, Kochi, Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati and Greater Noida.
The knowledge panel has advocated revision of the syllabus of these institutions every year to keep up with the changes and current developments in different disciplines.The varsities should be asked to explain for not updating the syllabus, it said.
To ensure quality, a mechanism should be in place to monitor and evaluate the performance of teachers.There should be provision for enabling salary differentials between universities and between different disciplines within universities, the NKC suggested.
In the front of governance and administration, the NKC said there should not be any intervention by the government in the appointment of vice chancellors in these institutions.Each university should set up an internal ombudsman for redressal of grievances of faculty, staff, student and public, the NKC said.
The legislation, to be brought for the establishment of these universities, should stipulate manageable and compact governance structures.Autonomy and accountability should get priority, the NKC suggested.The Act for the purpose should be termed as National Universities System Act instead of Indian World Class University System Act, it said.
The UGC recently held a consultation meeting to discuss the modalities on setting up of these universities.DDINEWS