The meeting held by the UGC on Tuesday approved the draft “Outline of the Development Plan for Institutions of Higher Education”
Post Date – 08:30 PM, Tuesday – July 23rd 25th
New Delhi: The University Grants Committee (UGC) approved draft guidelines for the Development Plan for Higher Education Institutions at its meeting on Tuesday.
Globally, there is growing interest in quality and standards, reflecting the rapid growth of higher education and its cost to public and private coffers.
According to the UGC, higher education institutions in India also need to demonstrate that they have taken quality to a significantly higher level and have adopted the means to achieve, demonstrate and ensure sustainable quality.
Against this backdrop and the internationalization of higher education, the challenges and demands arising in India and abroad require a strong and concerted response.
The “2020 National Education Policy” clearly states that high-quality higher education must aim at cultivating outstanding, thoughtful, comprehensively developed and creative talents.Individuals must be encouraged to delve into one or more professional areas of interest and to develop character, ethics and
Constitutional values, intellectual curiosity, scientific disposition, creativity, service and 21st century competencies, across a range of disciplines including science, social sciences, arts, humanities, languages and professional, technical and vocational subjects.
The UGC has developed guidelines for individual higher education institutions to formulate their own institutional development plans to further achieve the goals set out in the New Economic Policy 2020.
The UGC believes that IDPs need to embody an integrated approach that takes into account the institution’s vision and mission, context, life cycle stage, location, identity and aspirations.
In particular, it sets out guidelines on how higher education institutions can improve their physical and digital infrastructure.
According to the guidelines, the physical infrastructure should support the academic and research activities of the various departments of the university. Campus buildings, open space, circulation and utility systems are arranged to ensure the positive interaction of academic, research, extension, cultural and operational activities; the campus is protected and enhanced as an integral part of the University’s life and learning mission; the aesthetics of the campus are preserved and enhanced; environmental stewardship is encouraged; Mental health facilities such as counseling and welfare centres; inter alia.
Digitization is sweeping the world because of its ability to revolutionize the way organizations operate by improving internal processes.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and its infrastructure support have become integral to the survival and learning experience in all aspects of life.
The draft states that digitization has multiple benefits, including increased efficiency, increased productivity, reduced operating costs, improved learner experience, increased agility, improved morale, improved communication, increased transparency, increased competitive advantage, and faster decision-making.
As the world rapidly moves into digital media and other niche technologies, the role of ICT in education has become increasingly important, and this importance will continue to be nurtured and developed in the 21st century.
The UGC suggested that higher education institutions must also develop a roadmap, as well as the necessary learning and teaching models using ICT and virtual technologies, to realize the idea of a digital university. NEP 2020 also envisages investing in creating an open, interoperable, evolvable public digital infrastructure in education that can be used by multiple platforms and point solutions to address India’s scale, diversity, complexity and device penetration.
