4 years UG program with research, Affiliation System to be phased out in 15 years with graded autonomy to colleges
New Delhi: Union Cabinet today paves way for a New National Education Policy. Policy enables to set up Higher Education Commission of India as a single overarching umbrella body the for entire higher education.
Medical and Legal education will not come under Higher Education Commission.
Higher Education Commission will have four independent verticals – National Higher Education Regulatory Council for regulation, General Education Council for standard setting, Higher Education Grants Council for funding and National Accreditation Council for accreditation.
Commission will function through faceless intervention through technology, and will have powers to penalise HEIs not conforming to norms and standards. Public and private higher education institutions will be governed by the same set of norms for regulation, accreditation and academic standards.
New Education Policy has envisaged broad based, multi-disciplinary, holistic Under Graduate education with flexible curricula, creative combinations of subjects, integration of vocational education and multiple entry and exit points with appropriate certification.
Under Graduate education can be of 3 or 4 years with multiple exit options and appropriate certification within this period. For example, Certificate after 1-year, Advanced Diploma after 2 years, Bachelor’s Degree after 3 years and Bachelor’s with Research after 4 years.
An Academic Bank of Credit is to be established for digitally storing academic credits earned from different HEIs so that these can be transferred and counted towards final degree earned.
Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities, at par with IITs, IIMs, to be set up as models of best multidisciplinary education of global standards in the country.
The National Research Foundation will be created as an apex body for fostering a strong research culture and building research capacity across higher education.
Affiliation of colleges is to be phased out in 15 years and a stage-wise mechanism is to be established for granting graded autonomy to colleges. Over a period of time, it is envisaged that every college would develop into either an Autonomous degree-granting College, or a constituent college of a university.
