Maharashtra’s Department of Higher and Technical Education (HTE), for the last three years, has been constantly trying to enhance quality of education. Vikas Chandra Rastogi, its Principal Secretary, is the man steering the department to reach new heights. Under his leadership, the department has prepared a standard format for the universities in State to follow. His department has sent that format to the universities. Not many universities or colleges from Maharashtra figure in various national rankings.

 

The Union Ministry of Education ranks universities and educational institutions across the country. In it, only a few universities like Mumbai, Pune and Marathwada University from Maharashtra figure. Taking serious cognisance of the same, the Department of Higher and Technical Education instituted State Quality Assurance Cell. Revealing the details about the same, Rastogi told ‘The Hitavada’, “This cell has collected detail information from universities, colleges whether they have done their academic auditing, the status of students’ inflow, research. We conducted meetings with the university officials, discussed their efforts, their problems, set a target for them. A standard format was prepared and sent to them asking them to follow it scrupulously. Here universities or colleges are expected to introspect their performance, notice the loopholes, work on it, remove them and move with new perspectives. This is what we expect. Cell will monitor the progress of universities.” According to Rastogi, this initiative may start giving results in coming years. 

 

 

The change in approach by universities and colleges has become visible. Many institutions are coming forward with an initiative regarding enhancement in quality of education. “Chandrakant Patil had warned institutions in State about getting accreditated from National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). It worked and institutions have started doing it. Now, Maharashtra is leading in the county as its 2,375 institutes have accreditated themselves by NAAC. Karnataka is second having 900 plus institutes having NAAC accreditation. In last one-and-a-half years alone, over 1,000 institutes accreditated themselves for NAAC,” Rastogi said. Some changes have come in NAAC accreditation. The institutions which went for accreditated for NAAC because they haven’t done is the one category. Here institutions will get plane accreditation. In second category, NAAC has provided liberty to the institutions to go for grading. If the institutions seeks grading then the inspection and examination would be done in a different manner. 

 

 

The capacity building for international officers programme, developed under Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the UK-based organisation and Maharashtra’s Department of Higher and Technical Education, is aimed at advancing the internationalisation of higher education institutions across the State. This is aimed at increasing research and educational quality, This initiative aims to enhance the capacity of Indian universities to engage in internationalisation efforts while showcasing UK expertise in this area. “We are now making our education more flexible, the way we find abroad. National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is providing that liberty to our students. The complete implementation will take some time. Aligned with the goals of India’s (NEP) 2020, the British Council programme aspires to position India as a global hub of education by fostering cross-border collaborations and promoting excellence in higher education.

 

This agreement has made it easy to have academic cooperation with renowned universities like Oxford, Cambridge, Birmingham. It will also help in increasing the participation of students in research. Three universities in the state, Pune, COEP and Jalgaon, signed an agreement with Birmingham University. These universities will conduct research in the fields-Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture. These research may help Government in introducing new things in healthcare and agriculture,” Rastogi added.