Professor Yashpal submits the Yashpal Report of the Committee on Renovation and Rejuvenation of
Higher Education to HRD Minister Kapil Sibal in New Delhi on Wednesday. A Tribune photograph
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New Delhi, June 24
The beginning of bold reforms in the higher education sector was made today, with the 24-member Yashpal committee — constituted last year to suggest revamp measures — scripting the end of regulatory mechanism era in India and rooting for university autonomy.
In its report submitted to the government today, the panel favoured vesting universities with full academic responsibility by allowing them the freedom to self regulate, choose the courses they want to offer and even design them.
The panel said institutes of excellence like the IITs and the IIMs should function like world-class universities, offering a range of courses in science, astronomy, management, psychology and philosophy in line with the global trends of inter-disciplinary approaches.
On the regulatory mechanism front, the panel’s report, “Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education”, said the UGC, AICTE and MCI should not have a regulatory role and could be merged with the new National Commission for Higher Education and Research, which the committee recommended.
It called for a constitutional amendment to create the seven-member panel, which would function like the Election Commission. The Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and Chief Justice of India would select the members.
The commission would work as a facilitator to higher education institutes, which would be armed with the necessary legal mechanisms to offer courses of their choice. Notably, the commission is a part of the UPA’s promises and was mentioned by the President in her June 4 address to the Parliament. To bring it to life, the government would now have to bring a draft bill --- something HRD minister Kapil Sibal looks set to do. He said today that the Yashpal panel recommendations would be implemented in the first 100 days of the UPA government and they, along with NKC
suggestions, were pivotal for reforms in higher education. Sibal added that higher education reforms could not wait any longer. Yashpal panel, for its part, cautioned against allowing mediocre foreign universities to set up campuses in India and instead asked for the import of foreign scholars and academics to enrich the Indian education. “I am not against foreign scholars coming to India. Also it is time to have a commission for higher education that would act as a catalyst to combine different agencies together and take the sector forward,” said Prof Yashpal, in a way asking the government to have a relook at the pending foreign universities bill.
On UGC and AICTE, Yashpal said a new commission could not be created unless old structures were removed. His report takes note of the delays, excessive inspection and corruption in the universities’ dealing with governments.
Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has been nominated as member of the honorary senate of the Lindau Foundation, which supports the annual Nobel Prize winners meetings at Lake Constance in Germany. The foundation was created in 2000 on the initiative of Nobel Laureates, 200 of whom are today member of the Founders Assembly of the Foundation. The annual Nobel prize winners meetings enable young researchers’ interactions with Nobel Laureates, besides allowing transfer of knowledge between the Laureates themselves.
Sibal will leave for Lindau tomorrow to be inducted into the senate on June 28. Before he leaves, he will list his 100-day agenda. As a foundation member, he would, like others, demonstrate his support for the Lindau meetings as an unrivalled forum for the scientific elite in the world.
