Theme17:Suggest ways by which educational services can be exported. Education is not a commodity and neither are students consumers. Theme 18:Should Industry representatives be included in the governing bodies of Universities/ colleges? Industry builds applications of the new ideas that higher education creates, but is not connected with education itself. Placing such individuals in governing bodies will confer no advantage for the educational work that colleges do, and may in fact be count

Theme 2:should India focus its resources on research universities, including liberal arts and social sciences so as to improve the country’s position in the global rankings? Rankings is a flawed method, long under question even in the countries that have adopted it, and even boycotted by many leading international universities. There is ample evidence that wherever this method has been adopted, it has led administrators to focus more on manipulating statistics or the flawed ranking measuring sy

Theme 2:Should teachers have probation for 5 years? No. If the goal of extending teachers' probation is to encourage both diligence in teaching and productivity in research through their lifetime, then no amount of probation will guarantee that. Increasing the period of probation will not only increase job insecurity amongst younger faculty, it also has the potential of encouraging them to 'play safe' in research publishing, both in terms of choice of quick and easy topics, as well as the qual

Theme 2:Should fees be enhanced to Rs.500/- p.m. when the expenditure is more than Rs.2000/- per person? The people of India already pay direct and indirect taxes, as well as a special educational cess, to fund higher education. Increases in fees will only add to the already massive expenditure burden on individual households, as besides fees, students' living and commuting costs are borne by families already. At a time when the GER is so low, fee hikes will not serve the purpose of universalis

Theme 2:What should be done to teachers who don't teach? The existing service rules of teachers mandate teaching responsibilities on them and institutional rules outline a series of procedures by which this failure may be inquired into and adjudicated, as well as a range of penalties that may be imposed in the event of a dereliction of duty. There is therefore no reason why these should be discussed as new provisions in the NEP, unless the objective is to dilute the guarantees of the principle

GRADE B:to be assigned to a research output whose quality is excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour but which nonetheless falls short of the highest standards of excellence. This standard will be achieved by a research output that is, or is likely to become, a major reference point that substantially advances knowledge and understanding of the field or sub-field. GRADE C: a research output which is recognized in terms of originality, significance and rigour. This standard w

Theme 2:What institutional measures need to be taken to attract, recruit and retain exceptionally qualified faculty and also keep the equity focus? Appointment and promotion: The PBAS system is not a good measure of academic quality and should be replaced by a grade-based system. Rather than seeking to develop uniform, standardised and one-size-fits all performance indices for all fields, broad guidelines should be provided which allow specialised academic judgment to determine evaluation. For

Theme 2:Is it desirable to shift towards norm based and outcome based funding of public funded higher education institutions? If not why and If yes, why? It is important to understand that the better part of the funding given to universities is already norm-based and outcome-based, in that the UGC only funds those Universities that meet its basic criteria. For Central Universities, NAAC requirements act as norms, and many schemes such as the UGC's Potential for Excellence Scheme, are outcome b

Student mobility is also not going to be faciliated by this Act. First of all, there are no figures that indictae that students want such mobility, particularly given the living and travel costs associated with it. Furthermore, mobile students will have to impact the quality of teaching in every institution, as some institutions may end up having impossibly large classes, and others extremely small ones. Research outputs of faculty and students will also suffer.

The various Acts that have set up the older CUs are embedded on their own historical moments and tradition, and this diversity has stood the test of time and benefitted national development and social integration. They are also the best-ranked institutions of the country, and repealing the Acts that gave birth to them would be in the nature of punishment, as it is these very Acts that have shaped their curriculum, academic ethos, teaching and research. Nullifying these Acts will be a blow to div