The News Minute | April 1, 2015 | 10:39 a.m. IST
A committee set up by the HRD Minister Smriti Irani to review the functioning of the University Grants Commission (UGC) has recommended that the body be scrapped as it had not just “failed to fulfill its mandate” but also has not been able to deal with “emerging diverse complexities”.
According to a report in The Times of India, the committee, headed by former UGC chairman Hari Gautam, said that any restructuring of the UGC or amending the UGC Act was not a solution. The committee instead reportedly suggests the formation of a National Higher Education Authority via a legislation in Parliament, the bill for which has also been reportedly prepared by the committee.
The panel has also been reportedly quoted as saying that as such time as the bill is not passed, the HRD ministry can issue executive orders to effect changes.
Also, according to the report, the panel has suggested an aptitude test for admission to Ph.D and getting rid of the 10 year professor criteria to become a vice-chancellor. Reportedly it has also stressed on the teaching of yoga and transcendental meditation and sources from the Ministry have been quoted as saying that they would take the matter seriously.
The panel also reportedly criticised the appointment policies and the fact that the UGC is "plagued in the main by reductionism in its functioning”.
The panel also reportedly said: “It (UGC) has side-stepped its function of being a sentinel of excellence in education and embraced the relatively easier function of funding education”.