Maharashtra: House passes Maharashtra Public Universities Act 2016
The Bill proposes to strike a balance between elections and nominations to various university bodies to stamp out nominations of vested interests.
The
State Legislative Assembly Thursday passed the new Maharashtra Public
Universities Act 2016, paving the way for wide-ranging fundamental reforms in
the functioning of public universities. The Council too passed the Bill
unanimously. Based on the recommendations of three different committees headed
by Anil Kakodkar, Arun Nigvekar and Ram Takwale set up in 2010-11, the Bill was
tabled by Higher and Technical Education Minister Vinod Tawde after
incorporating recommendations and changes by a 21-member scrutiny panel headed
by Tawde himself. The Bill proposes to usher in far-reaching changes in various
areas of university activities, putting students’ interests at the centre, as
also to lend greater autonomy of functioning and eliminate rampant
commercialisation of education.
Among the many new ideas sought to be
implemented are reintroduction of university elections, setting up of students’
development councils (SDCs), choice-based credit system, cutting down of
political appointments through nomination of experts, increasing social
reservations in various university bodies, special emphasis on skill
development, uniform regulatory regimen for all universities and introduction
of modern accounting system. To increase the say of students in university
affairs, the Bill proposes to appoint previous year’s topper in a particular
faculty as a member of that faculty’s board of studies, nominating the
president of university students’ council as invitee member of the management
council, special exams for students required to participate in
inter-university, national, international sports and cultural events, National
Service Scheme and Rashtriya Chatrasena programmes etc. Among the major new suggestion
is reintroduction of college and university election from the next academic
session.
The Bill proposes to strike a balance between
elections and nominations to various university bodies to stamp out nominations
of vested interests. Nominations will now be done after election of
chairpersons of boards of studies as against the past practice, when nominated
members would have a say in elections of such chairpersons as well as deans of
various faculties. The Bill ushers in choice-based credit system, which will
enable the students to chose any subject of their liking. There will be
credit/gradation system in performance evaluation to allow students to study
combination of subjects of their own choice. This will also facilitate their
seamless shift from one university to another.
The Bill proposes to nominate eight experts
from nationally important institutes into academic councils. Similarly,
academic faculties and board of studies will also have five and four nominated
experts respectively, from industries and national research and educational
institutes in order to the quality of curriculum. Another important provision
in the Bill is to increase social reservation in various bodies to give a
greater say to various sections of the society in the university’s decision
making process. Reservation in senate has been increased from nine seats to 14
and in management council from one to four. In academic council, positions of
principal, professor and lecturer have also been provided with social
reservation.
The Bill lays major stress on
entrepreneurship development through skill development. For this, the Bill has
introduced the idea of board of innovation, incubation and enterprise and board
of national and international linkages. The boards will strive to bring in the
latest in global entrepreneur skills to the universities. A senior manager from
the lead bank of the university will be part of the innovation board. The Bill
has introduced “new concepts”, autonomous colleges, empowered autonomous
colleges, empowered group institutions, private skills education institutions
and cluster university. To leverage the advantages of information technology,
the Bill incorporates the A-3 society (anyone, anytime, anywhere) concept
suggested by Anil Kakodkar. A new Board of Information Technology will be
introduced at the university level to leverage advantages of information
technology for teaching, studying and research.
A new Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies to
facilitate interdisciplinary studies will also be introduced. To minimise the
undue interference of groups of individuals, institutions and organisations in
the election process of various university bodies, the Bill proposes to replace
election of deans of faculties with quality-based nomination. However, principals,
teachers, institutional heads and graduate members of senate will be elected. A
new Maharashtra Authority of Higher Education (MAHED) is proposed to be set up
to coordinate and direct the long-term higher education policies’
implementation. The Bill proposes to establish internal quality assurance
boards as a precondition for quality assessment by NAAC and university grants
commission.
For grant of permission to new colleges, the
new system will offer a letter of intent for the first year during which the
colleges will have to complete infrastructure building and creation of
facilities. After due scrutiny of the facilities, the university will then
grant permission to run such colleges. The Bill stresses on quick and proper
redressal of students’ complaints, setting up of equal opportunity cell for
divyang students and setting up of a Vishakha cell to redress complaints of
sexual harassment of women. Another important proposal is to make compulsory
mercantile (double entry) accounting system to bring transparency. To prevent
profiteering by unaided institutions affiliated to universities, the Bill
proposes to set up special committee to determine fees and a regulatory
mechanism at the state-level.
Source | Indian Express | 9 December 2016
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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