September 26, 2014, by Varrtika Mudaliar

Indian Higher Education – Some Truth, Some Speculation

These are exciting times for India; the new Government is in place, there have been controversies about the educational qualification of the newly appointed Minister of Human Resource Development, and far reaching educational reforms have been announced during the Prime Minister NarendraModi’sIndependence Day speech! Full text of the speech is available at http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/narendra-modi-independence-day-speech-full-text-red-fort/1/377299.html

The roller coaster ride of the Indian higher education system seems to be going full pace. What with the HRD Minister defending herself by saying she has a degree from Yale! The National Knowledge Commission may be dissolved to pave way for a think tank comprising academia, industry and government people.

The all-pervasive University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) may see the end of their tenure and combine forces to create a new body that will oversee educational planning, reforms, accreditation, internationalisation and collaborations with industry.

The new government has decreed that all engineering courses may have a compulsory semester in industry from July 2014.

There is still talk about the long pending Foreign University’s Bill and grapevine says it will be cleared this season, although this has been promised for the last 5 years.

Protests have been seen at Delhi University concerning the move to increase undergraduate degrees from three to four years in length. It appears that this proposal has now been withdrawn but those who enrolled in four year degrees last year are in limbo as to their fate.

It is an exciting time for Indian education; there are plans to set up five new universities as Centres of Excellence, opening technical training institutes and imparting work skills to 2,500,000 Indian youth by 2025 for industry jobs.

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