Higher Education in India

All quiet on the MHRD front

The Narendra Modi government at the Centre has completed three years and a couple of months, that is more than half of its term and yet if we venture to count its achievements in the Higher Education sector then we will really have to strain our mind to an extreme to find an example.

The two examples that come immediately to my mind, worth citing, are the National Institutional Ranking Framework the first edition which was launched on 4^th April, 2016 and the Higher Educational Financing Agency which has its roots in the past.

The third venture that the government took up with much fanfare was the drafting of a New Education Policy, though the seeds of it were sown during the previous Congress rule. The Minister of State Jitin Prasad had, during the 62^nd meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education on 10^th October 2013 welcomed the proposal to have a new “Education Commission” and a new National Testing Agency. The proposals were left to be deliberated and worked out in detail in consultation with all stakeholders.

The MHRD under the Narendra Modi government decided to have a New Education Policy instead of an “Education Commission”. A committee was appointed under T.S.R Subramanian which fretted for six months and then submitted its report to the HRD Minister on May 7, 1016. more

Private greed diluting med education more than SC/ST quota, says report

NEW DELHI : Private medical colleges are more to be blamed for declining standard of medical studies in the country, says a newspaper sample survey. The survey, conducted by the Times of India says that private greed rather than SC/ST reservation account for falling standards in medical education. Citing examples of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) scores, the news report says that in Assam, only 49 of the 603 students admitted were below the cut-offs that would have been needed (from 93rd percentile for unreserved to 74th for ST) to fill all the seats available if merit alone mattered and all students who qualified were willing to join. In contrast, in Uttar Pradesh, over 2,900 of the 4,908 students admitted were below the cut-offs calculated on the basis of merit. About 95% of these students were in the private colleges in UP. more

:: TOP STORIES ::

Govt moves to streamline working of private universities
NEW DELHI : The National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) here will soon form a working group of experts
to study the functioning of the private universities in the country. more

IITs forced to lower cut-off for undergraduate admissions
NEW DELHI : Crumbling under government pressure, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) lowered their cut-off marks on June 14 to admit 13, 542 more undergraduate students. more

GNDU Amritsar and Osmania University get Rs 107 each
NEW DELHI : The Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) has released a grant of Rs 107 crore each to Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) Amritsar and Osmania University, Hyderabad. more

No takers for ESIC quota medical seats in Uttar Pradesh
KANPUR : There are hardly any takers for medical seats reserved by the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) in the medical colleges of the country due to lack of information about the facility. more

:: KEY STORIES ::

Courts CANNOT examine answer sheets, says SC

SC refuses to interfere in CLAT 2018 counselling

re-recognition of distance edu courses opposed
NO FACULTY, FACILITIES IN NEW PVT. MEDICAL COLLEGES
ENGINEERING LOSES LURE AS BOYS TURN TO HUMANITIES

52% IIT ENTRANTS QUALIFIED BY SELF-STUDY : REPORT


B'lore varsity & RHUHS get VCs after 2 years
BANGALORE : After nearly two years Bangalore University and Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) have had their vice-chancellors on June 12. Both the universities were functioning with interim VCs. more

MKU VC appointment flawed, says court
CHENNAI : On June 14 the Madras High Court issued a writ of quo warranto and set aside the appointment of Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) Vice-Chancellor P.P. Chellathurai. The court said that the appointment made last year was based on flawed proceedings of the search committee. more

GRC Reddy moves north, joins Sharda
	NEW DELHI : On June 6 Prof GRC Reddy joined G.Noida based Sharda University as its vice-chancellor. Essentially an Andhrite, Prof Reddy's shifting to north has surprised many who do not know that he can speak and understand Hindi well. more

Govt axe on many UG & PG medical seats
NEW DELHI : In a blunt decision on May 31 the Union government barred 82 existing medical colleges from admitting students to their MBBS seats in the academic session 2018-19, thereby blocking at least 10,430 of the estimated 64,000 UG seats available in the country. The decision was taken following recommendations by the Medical Council of India (MCI) which cited "deficiencies" in these medical colleges in the matter of infrastructure, faculty and number of patients. more

AIIMS cardiologist is ICMR chief
NEW DELHI : On April 10 the Union cabinet approved the appointment of Balram Bhargava, a senior AIIMS cardiologist, as the director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). more

SC rejects KEA 10-year rule on med admission
NEW DELHI : On April 4 the Supreme Court declared as invalid the Karnataka government notification necessitating 10-year study in the state as a precondition for admission to postgraduate medical/dental college government quota seats. more