Image Courtesy : www.facebook.com/mamidalajagadesh.kumar

UGC- University Grants Commission has recently engaged with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)

in order to assure that students from the remotest areas can have access to online education facilities.

Professor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, Chairman, University Grants Commission (UGC), declared the information at the roundtable- Enhancing Competitiveness and Quality Revolution in Indian Higher Education (IHE). The UGC, Jagadesh Kumar, was the chief guest of the event. Apex industry body, Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), organized a roundtable.

UGC Chairman informed- they are working on a multi-dimensional way to ensure that education reaches the last student in the most remote area. So, they have signed up with MeitY as they have many common service centres (CSCs). Any student can step into those centres, pay a nominal monthly fee, and access digital universities.

Professor Kumar gave wisdom to the various initiatives undertaken by the Government of India to boost and enhance higher education in the nation. Students and the stakeholders have received the introduction of Common Universities Entrance Test Undergraduate (CUET UG) 2022 very well. An enormous number of students, around 14.9 lakhs, enlisted for this examination, which is only next to NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test).

Speaking on the possible consolidation between NEET and JEE, he added that- that is an idea that we are floating so that there is extensive discussion among the stakeholders. There is no formal conclusion that we have taken on this.

Concerning bringing international students into Indian educational institutions, he said, Recently we have increased the upper cap to 25%, earlier, it was 15%. And in the same guidelines, we also stated that as far as the admission of these students is concerned, each university can have its admission guideline and terms of fixing its tuition fee. We hope that with this flexibility given to our educational institutions will be able to lure international students.

He added that the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) will also be enhanced soon. It will be a comprehensive document and would become the foundation of all kinds of education with the integration of three pillars - school education, skill education, and national higher education.

On a question on deemed-to-be universities, Professor Jagadesh commented that there are around 126 deemed universities in India, and they are already working on the deemed-to-be universities’ laws. Removing the tag ‘deemed-to-be’ needs an amendment on the UGC part. But it will happen for sure.