For rejuvenating higher education

Updated on: Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Commission shall, subject to the provisions of this Act and regulations made there under take measures to promote the autonomy of higher educational institutions for the free pursuit of knowledge and innovation, and for facilitating access, inclusion and opportunities to all, and providing for comprehensive and holistic growth of higher education and research in a competitive global environment, through reforms and renovation.” – The National Commission for Higher Education and Research Bill-2010.

In what could be termed as the most wide-ranging makeover of the higher education in the country, a task force set up by the Central government in September 2009 has recommended the creation of an omnibus national commission to oversee higher education and research.

The task force was set up in September 2009 in the wake of the reports of the committee to advise on the renovation and rejuvenation of higher education and the National Knowledge Commission. The draft bill has been posted in the section on higher and technical education of the website of the MHRD (www.education.nic.in).

The Bill envisages a commission with six members headed by a chairman. The office of the chairman and three members of the commission shall be full-time and salaried.

The chairman and the other members of the commission shall be appointed by the President on the recommendation of a selection committee comprising the Prime Minister, the speaker of the Lok Sabha, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Minister in charge of higher education in the Government of India and the Minister in charge of medical education in the Government of India.

The selection committee shall make its recommendations from a panel of three names for each post submitted by a collegium of “persons of eminence and integrity in academia.”

According to academics associated with the functioning of the task force the concept of a collegium is a pivotal recommendation of the Bill. A council of elders which would come into existence even before the commission, the collegium would have core fellows and co-opted fellows. A core fellow shall be a person

(a) who is, or has been, a National Research Professor; or

(b) who is a recipient of the Nobel Prize or Field Medal; or

(c) who is a recipient of the Jnanpith award; or

(d) who is a Member of an Academy of international standing.

The co-opted fellows would be inducted into the collegium by the core fellows making sure that each state and union territory is given representation. Each state government and Union territory administration can present a panel of five eminent academics to be co-opted.

Though the Bill does not say so explicitly, the collegium is expected to continue in perpetuity. After suggesting a panel to the selection committee which would appoint the chairman and members of the NCHER, the collegium would still have crucial roles to play in the functioning of the commission.

Apart from aiding and advising the commission in making recommendations to determine, coordinate and maintain standards in higher education and research, the collegium is also expected to recommend to the commission a vision on emerging trends in different fields of knowledge, recommend for inclusion in a national registry, persons eligible for appointment as vice chancellors in universities in the country and make observations and suggestions and advise in the funding for higher education and research.

It shall also be the collegium's duty to make observations and recommendations about the functioning of the NCHER itself. A major complaint that kept popping up at sittings of the Yash Pal Committee was the anomalies in the process of appointment of vice chancellors and the politicisation of that process.

The task force's antidote to this has been the concept of a national registry of persons eligible to be appointed as vice chancellors. Once the Bill becomes an Act of Parliament, no university in the country would have a vice chancellor whose name does not figure in this registry.

When asked to by the State or Central governments, the commission shall recommend a panel of five names for appointment as vice chancellor to the post of a university.

One person from this list can then be appointed. Academics associated with the preparation of the draft Bill told The Hindu-EducationPlus that state governments would still be free to set up search committees to create a short list of persons to be appointed as vice chancellors in state universities. The respective chancellor can then take a final decision. “The only condition then would be that all persons in that short list should also be listed in the national registry. The Bill does not require state governments to run to the NCHER each time they want to appoint a VC,” one academic explained.

The Centre, the States and institutions of higher learning can recommend names for inclusion in the national registry. Such names would be vetted by the collegium before inclusion in the registry.

Another key provision in the Bill is one relating to the granting of authorisation by the NCHER to universities to commence academic operations.

According to this provision, “no university or institution empowered, by or under law, to award any degree or diploma established after the coming into force of this Act shall commence its first academic operations unless it is so authorised, in accordance with such norms as may be specified by regulations:…” Translated, this would mean that even if the Kerala Assembly were to institute a university in the State, the institution cannot begin academic operations without authorisation from the commission.

The Bill requires the NCHER to establish, by regulations, principles norms and criteria—an annual funding support plan for higher education—which would govern the block grants given by it to universities and other institutions of higher learning. Similarly the commission should also prepare an annual funding support plan for research.

NCHER reports

The commission has also been tasked with the preparation of annual reports on the “State of Higher Education and Research in india” in relation to global trends. Such reports, after incorporating the recommendations of the collegium, would be placed before the President who in turn would place it in both houses of Parliament along with an action taken memorandum.

The commission shall also present to the President once every five years a report on “the vision of higher education and research in the forthcoming decade…” This report too should be tabled in the Parliament.

The commission shall also prepare once in five years a similar report for each state and union territory and present it to the Governors. These reports would be tabled in the state legislature along with an action taken memorandum.

Once every five years the NCHER would itself come under scrutiny by a panel of experts appointed by the President on the advice of the collegeium.

Anyhow, the NCHER would function within the national framework of education and research put in place by the central government in consultation with the States and the commission itself. As part of a nation-wide exercise to gather feedback on the draft bill the members of the task force are scheduled to hold a sitting at Thiruvananthapuram on February 16.

For rejuvenating higher education

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