HRD Ministry maps colleges and varsities

The initiative has covered not just government or aided colleges or universities but also private and unaided. 'Deemed' universities also have been covered under the mapping programme.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has posted a major achievement as it has finished mapping all the varsities and colleges across the country, technical and otherwise, on tangible parameters as part of its "Know Your College" campaign. Now students as well as parents will have such details of the colleges - their past performance and infrastructure - to make an informed choice before seeking admission.

The initiative has covered not just government or aided colleges or universities but also private and unaided. 'Deemed' universities also have been covered under the mapping programme. Also, the details of these colleges and universities -now available online on the MHRD website www.knowyourcollege-gov.in - would include information as the courses and programmes offered, faculty, labs, library, infrastructure and availability of hostels. Students and parents can just key in information such as state, district, university, level and course to find the relevant details. "With the time for admission to colleges having arrived, there is often confusion in the minds of students regarding which colleges to join and the courses to take up. This is an important initiative as students and parents often complain of having chosen the wrong combination of college or other institute of higher education and courses offered therein. Particular colleges and universities have their fields of specialisation which varies across the board.

This initiative will help the students to seek admission in an informed manner," said an official of the ministry. "It will also help them in measuring the actual performance of their colleges against what the colleges might have advertised at the time of admission. This way it is also going to create a system of accountability where the onus of furnishing true information as well as living up to what has been advertised will be on the colleges and universities," the official added. Also, the portal would serve as the window for students to register their dissatisfaction or lodge their complaints against their institute which would be another factor for increased accountability for the institutions of higher learning. The portal was launched in November last year to help students in making the right selection of colleges and universities. The portal covers nearly 10,500 colleges that carry out about 14,000 programmes in the field of technical education. It also covers nearly 35,000 colleges teaching at least 20,000 programmes in non-technical education.

This portal is being maintained and managed by the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Earlier, the MHRD had made headlines for providing all NCERT books on a mobile application. The books can be downloaded for free in any part of the country even over a smartphone. The Android operating system-based mobile app has been developed by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT). All books from Class 1 to 12, in Hindi or English, could be downloaded free of any charge. As part of an ICT-based project for extension and qualitative improvement of learning material by the ministry, the mobile app contains such selection options such as language, class, subject and chapters for narrowing down the search.

Source | http://indiatoday.intoday.in/