Journalism of Courage
Uncertainty hangs over the process of approval for new colleges affiliated to state universities with no clarity on when the process would begin and if at all any new colleges would get approvals this year.
At Savitribai Phule Pune University, this delay has left those hopeful of starting new colleges in a fix.
The deadline for the process is October 31.
However, barely one week to go before the deadline, there has been no word yet on proposals for new colleges this year.
The delay is because of the state government’s decision to formulate a uniform “perspective plan” for all varsities across the state, only after which a review of need for new colleges or courses can be assessed. The idea was mooted by the state government as it was felt that there was imbalance and lack of uniformity among universities in Maharashtra, which needed to be eliminated to enhance the quality of education.
“We hope to start the process by December. This year, the process has been delayed across state universities since the committee appointed under the chairmanship of Dr Narendra Jadhav to develop the perspective plan is yet to submit its report. Once it submits its report, each university will have to submit its own perspective plan to the state government. The committee’s recommendations will give general guidelines for all varsities. Based on that, we have to start the process of preparing our own perspective plan and submit it before our management council. Once approved, we have to submit the same to state government. After our varsity’s perspective plan is approved, we can begin the process of inviting proposals for new colleges,” said SPPU vice-chancellor Dr Wasudeo Gade.
“The perspective plan is a comprehensive study with respect to students passing the XIIth standard vis-a-vis the number of seats available, gross enrolment ratio in colleges, equity in admission and so on. Once an analysis is done to ascertain if there is a demand for a certain course or a new college and whether there needs to be additional divisions, only then can we decide where and when new colleges need to be given permissions to maximise the potential of excellence in education,” said Dr V B Gaikwad, director, Board of College and University Development (BCUD).
