A few days ago, someone sent me the link to a news item, Cluster system to be initiated in nine Hyderabad colleges. These 9 colleges are working on an agreement with each other to allow students of other colleges to take their courses with a process of credit transfer. Later, there would also be faculty of one college teaching a course in another college.
This caught my attention. Of course, NEP 2020 talks about creating clusters of nearby colleges, and this seems the first such step to implement the same. The reason this caught my attention was that we often hear of Indian institutions signing MoUs with foreign universities, but not so much with Indian universities. And I have pointed this out repeatedly in my social media posts. So happy to see that NEP2020 is beginning to address that at least for colleges which are physically close to each other.
But what about institutions geographically far apart. Even if just consider teaching, it should be possible to register for an online course sitting anywhere, and in the post Covid era, even spend a semester fully at another institution.
And collaboration is not necessarily only for student exchange. As I have personally done in the past, faculty can teach a course in another institution. Of course, joint research projects are something that faculty in good institutions are already doing. But there can be collaboration in other processes also.
For example, can we collaborate in admissions. We already see government institutions doing join counseling. We also see that technical universities doing joint counseling for all engineering colleges affiliated to it. But what about universities. Slowly the number of students enrolled in private universities is increasing and the number in affiliated colleges is decreasing. If some of the private universities join hands and do admissions together through a common portal, similar to that offered by technical universities, this would be a great convenience for the students and parents. They don't have to fill a large number of forms, they don't have to pay money to multiple universities to reserve their seats and every time they get a better admission offer, seek refund from the previous one, and so on. And it is not just the convenience of students and parents. It also reduces the cost of student acquisition for the universities. The amount of money spent in admission publicity by private universities is humongous. If there is a common portal then all participants in the common admission process can reduce their advertising cost. And note, it is possible that every college may have its own admission criteria. They don't have to have a common merit list for them to use a common portal. Just like NITs and IITs don't have a common merit list and yet they use a common portal. So we all keep our academic autonomy and freedom to decide our admission criteria and still use a common portal. One huge advantage is the geographic reach of the university increases. If there are 5 universities who all have their sphere of influence in their region, a common portal will mean that students checking out the university in their region will notice the universities of other region as well.
This is my long cherished dream that I have been writing about for more than a decade. I recall when I was at LNMIIT more than a decade ago, I had written to private universities within Rajasthan making this suggestion. It didn't happen then, and it may not happen in near future, but I will keep working on it.
Similarly, why can't we have joint degree programs between two universities of India. In fact, one of my dreams is a program where a student spends time at 3-4 institutions and get a joint degree signed by all these institutions. Again, we work with foreign universities for these things and not within the country. This will allow each institution to leverage their strengths and contribute the most in that area.
I hope there are others out there who think similarly, and I would be happy to take any collaboration proposal which is of mutual benefit to the board of JKLU for consideration.
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2 comments:
That is very right sir.
It is even more relevant and required in research. At a time a good number of researchers are are working on the same topic parallelly. The total outcome of the effort is much much less tan the required. If we all work in collaboration, the results will be highly fruitful. Though it can not be said in black and white, but I have felt a conflict of interests even. in that case, nothing comes out. On the other hand we publish everything for others to take benefit of that. The main reason behind seems like the division of institutions in Tier-1, 2 3 and so on.
The other major factor is that the heads of institutions are for a short period. Everyone has his or her own vision. Moreover if top management work on their own whims and fancies and not follow the law of land, we can not expect good results.
As fa as Tier is concerned, the IIT Bombay students should feel happy to study some subjects from JKLP University teachers. In such environment. we can progress in this direction.
AICTE and UGC also have to be taken in to the loop. There can be a common minimum course structure for one and all related to any particular stream o that interchangeability is an easier task. The race to foreign universities should also be slowed down.
The most important thing is that the faculty should be taken care of. In a large no of private universities, the faculty is highly underpaid. In govt colleges and universities, the majority of them have been struggling to get their rightful dues in general. The rules and regulations should be made very stringent (progress and quality oriented), but should be followed firmly and timely, so that there is no representation of that sort or any court case. The govt of India should also see that accountability should be fixed for the administrative officers in case they cause some one to move to the court of law.
If such things are taken care of, we can raise the competence and credibility of the faculty and students. We will have good collaborations, good research and product development eco system in the country. If we all do not develop this eco system, I do not know how long we will keep importing the equipment and other things.
JAI BHARAT.
Please excuse me or any adverse words if someone feels like.
This is the need of the hour. It will be very fruitful for all the private players in the Education Sector.
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