A committee of eight members has been set by the state government to frame a ‘clear and detailed’ guideline for the approval of new colleges, courses and other divisions of Higher and Technical Education. Old norms will be revised intricately before implementing new frameworks. The committee headed by Dr RS Mali, former Vice Chancellor of North Maharashtra University in Jangan. It is expected to submit the draft to the state government by February 25. Experts are looking at the new guidelines as a cap on numbers and improvement in quality.
The norms of sanctioning new colleges, courses, curriculums and additional divisions have been specified under section 81, 82 and 83 of Maharashtra Universities Act 1994. The same has been specified in the amended Maharashtra Public Universities Act 2016.
“Even though norms and guidelines about sanctioning new colleges existed in the old act as well as the new one, the state government wanted an expert panel to study these guidelines and make them stringent to raise the quality of education across the state. Approving new colleges will not be a simple affair anymore,” said principal of a well-known college in Mumbai and one of the members of the committee as per Indian Express reports.
The issue of approving colleges has long been an issue. It is often believed that letting just any college set its base without a legit scrutiny has increased pressure on the universities. Universities like Mumbai and Pune have a large number of colleges affiliated to them. While Mumbai University currently has over 740 colleges affiliated to it, Pune University has around 811 colleges making it the largest university in the state and the second largest university in the country.
