One more U-Turn...why didn't you think before throwing....Mr. Minster?

Final decision on NCHER rests with Centre, says Kapil Sibal

Aarti Dhar - The Hindu

NEW DELHI: Under criticism from his Cabinet colleagues, Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Saturday sought to clarify that the final decision on the proposed National Commission on Higher Education and Research (NCHER) remained with the government at the “highest level” and that the decision would be “acceptable” to the Ministry.

Speaking to journalists at the end of a daylong consultation organised by the task force on the draft NCHER bill with academics from across the country, Mr. Sibal said the bill was the property of the task force. The government could change its title and take the final call.

The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry and the Bar Council of India oppose the idea of transferring medical and legal education to the Human Resource Development Ministry, which is piloting the legislation and which has set up the task force.

The task force decided to set up an ‘informal' committee of four eminent persons. It will study the drafts of the NCHER and National Council for Human Resource in Health (NCHRH) bills to ensure there was no overlap. The committee will comprise Srinath Reddy and Ranjit Roy Choudhary (both members of the HCHRH task force) and M.K. Bhan and Syeda Hamid, both members of the NCHER task force. Mr. Sibal said the inputs received at the consultation would be taken into account while finalising the draft NCHER bill before it was placed before the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) next month. After the CABE approved it, the draft Bill would be sent to the government.

Task force member N.R. Madhava Menon said the legislation was aimed at granting more autonomy and academic freedom to universities, and this would lead to more accountability. The government would have no role in the setting up of the commission, and there were mechanisms to check its misuse. “We also want medical, legal and agricultural higher education to be under the purview of the commission,” he said. The task force would recommend to the government to amend the Constitution for bringing agriculture education to the Concurrent List. Another member M.K. Bhan said the second draft of the Bill — discussed at the consultation — was more consistent with the federal structure, as it had representation for the States, and for a wide spectrum of areas. The participants also agreed with the new draft that had a provision for setting up a general council that allowed for wider discussions. Of the newly constituted Board of Governors that replaced the Medical Council of India, one member turned up for the consultation.

With the begging bowl again....

Sibal to focus on wooing foreign varsities on US trip

2010-05-29 19:00:00

Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal, during his 10-day visit to the US beginning Monday, will focus on increasing cooperation in the education sector and attracting American universities to set up their campuses in India, an official said Saturday. Sibal is accompanying External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna for the India-US strategic dialogue. Official sources in the HRD ministry said Sibal will interact with government officials and representatives from a number of universities seeking cooperation in the higher education sector. Sources said the meetings will aim at attracting these universities to set up their campuses in India. This comes after the foreign universities bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha during the budget session. The bill aims at facilitating as well as regulating setting up of campuses by foreign varsities in India. 'This will be the litmus test for the (foreign university) bill,' a senior minisitry official said. Among the universities the HRD minister will be interacting with is Virginia Tech, which has shown interest in setting up a campus in Hyderabad. Sibal will be meeting the university's president for further deliberations. He will also meet representatives from the Washington's premier Georgetown University on Thursday. On Friday, the minister will interact with representatives from Stanford Centre for International Development, a center of Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research which focuses on international trade and development. He will also meet representatives from University of California, Berkeley on the same day. This will be Sibal's second visit to the US in seven months. During his visit towards the end of October 2009, he had met the heads of several top American universities, including Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale. 'The universities expressed interest at that time but they wanted to wait for the foreign universities bill to come,' the official said. It is important to note that all the above mentioned universities have already refused to establish their campuses in India. But let's go with the begging bowl again....

IIT, IIM staff crunch: Increase in vacancies in 2009-10 : Mr HRD Minister what your "Task Force" is doing?

IIT, IIM staff crunch

New Delhi, April 21 (PTI): The IITs and IIMs are facing a shortage of faculty members despite an attractive pay structure, good accommodation and other perks, the Lok Sabha was told today.

IIT Kharagpur has a maximum vacancy of 299 posts, followed by 222 in IIT Bombay, 194 in IIT Roorkee, 138 in IIT Madras, 78 in IIT Delhi, 69 in IIT Kanpur and 65 in IIT Guwahati, HRD minister of state D. Purandeswari said in a written reply.

The number of vacancies have increased from 877 in the seven old IITs in 2008-09 to 1,065 in 2009-10, the minister said.

The vacancies in these institutions in 2007-08 was 971.

There are 95 vacanies in the seven IIMs. IIM-Bangalore has a maximum vacancy of 35 posts followed by 29 in IIM-Ahmedabad.

“Recruitment of faculty is a continuous process and all efforts are being made by the institutes to fill up vacant posts. Institutions have been employing suitable strategies to attract and retain quality faculty which include attractive pay structure, provisions of good residential accommodation, medical facilities and initial research grants,” Purandeswari said.

For the kind attention of Hon'ble Supreme Court

08.03.2010



09.03.2010

Deemed University review by P.N. Tondon Committee Scam : Is Kapil Sibal a Part??

Dr. TMA Pai was the founder of Manipal Education Group. His son, Dr. Ramdas M Pai then took over the reins and made it into a purely commercial venture. Infact the Manipal Group controlled by the PAI family may be considered to be the Father of Capitation Fee System in India. In 1993 The Manipal Intuition became the first Commercial Institution to be granted status of deemed University in the Private Sector in India which led to opening of Gates for Private Players to become deemed Universities.

Dr. Ramdas Pai’s is also the Pro Chancellor of the Sikkim-Manipal University of Health, Medical & Technological Sciences, Gangtok, Sikkim, India’s Leading Private University.

The Manipal University has Campuses in Pokhara, Nepal, in Melaka, Malaysia and in Dubai, UAE which do not have approval from the University Grants Commission, Medical Council of India and The Government of India.

Mr. Kapil Sibal’s Relations with the Manipal Group
Mr. Kapil Sibal, the Union HRD Minister, is considered very close to the Manipal Group and has also represented the Manipal Group in many litigations before the High Court of Karnataka and The Supreme Court of India, advocating privatization of Higher Education.

Visit by the HRD Minister to the Unapproved Campus of Manipal University in Malasysia
Mr. Kapil Sibal, the Union HRD Minister who speaks a lots against the Deemed Universities in July 2009 did not miss the opportunity to take time off, visit and inaugurate the Sports Complex of Manipal Medical College in Melaka, a Constituent of Manipal Academy of Higher Education deemed University. It is to be noted that neither the government of India, nor the UGC has approved the off shore campus of Manipal University in Malaysia. The Medical Council off India has also not withdrawn it’s recognition from the college due to it’s irregularities.

The Review Committee Formed by the Ministry of HRD Under the Chairmanship of Prof. P.N. Tandon
The name of Manipal Academy of Higher Education Deemed University has been cleared by the Review Committee Formed by the Ministry of HRD to review the Functioning of the Deemed University by P.N. Tondon Committee
Parameters which were Considered By the Review Committee: Parameters Facts
Management: Family Owned (Pai Group)
Off Campus Centers: Highest Number of Off Campus Centres in India (Most of them Not approved by the UGC)
Off Shore Campus Outside the Country: In Malasia and Dubai (Not Approved By the UGC)

Fee Structure: One of the Highest Fee Charged by the Deemed University in the Country
The important question is why was Manipal University not considered for De recognition: Answer is Simple when your lawyer is the HRD Minister you dont need anybody else.

Did the Review Committee Formed by the Ministry of HRD Under the Chairmanship of Prof. P.N. Tandon gave clearance to Manipal University under influence from the HRD Minister?
Prof. P.N. Tandon was a Member of Adhoc Committee appointed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court look in to the issue of recognition of medical college.

The Executive Committee of the Medical Council of India held it’s meeting on 24th August, 2007 at 11.00 a.m. in the Council Office at Sector 8, Pocket 14, Dwarka, New Delhi-110 077 where the members of the Adhoc Committee appointed as per the Hon’ble Supreme Court including Prof. P.N Tandon were also present.

At S.No 39 and 40 the case of Medical Coolges Under the Manipal University were considered. The Expert members of the Adhoc Committee appointed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court and of the Executive Committee of the Medical Council of India Made the following recommendations regarding the Medical Colleges :

“In view of above and as the deficiencies of teaching faculty, teaching beds, distribution of units, availability of paramedical staff and other infrastructure are still persisting, the members of the Adhoc Committee appointed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court and of the Executive Committee of the Council decided to reiterate its earlier decisions taken at its meeting held on 22.5.2002 and as approved by the General Body of the Council presided over by the Administrator at its meeting held on 27.8.2002 and by the Executive Committee on 02.12.2006 wherein the members of the Adhoc Committee appointed by the Hon’ble Supreme court were also present to recommend to the Central Government to initiate action u/s 19 of the Indian Medical Council Act,1956 for withdrawal of recognition of MBBS degree granted by Manipal Academy of Higher Education in respect of students being trained at Kasturba Medical College, Manipal and further decided to request the Central Government to recall the permission given by the Central Govt. vide letter dated 15.06.2007 to admit the students for MBBS course during the current academic year 2007-2008 and to direct the institute not to make any further admissions in the MBBS course for the academic year 2007-08. It was further decided to request the Central Government to direct the institute not to teach and train the students of Malekka Manipal Medical College, Malaysia unless evidence of creating additional facilities for training such students is submitted to the Central Government and prior permission of the Central Government is obtained for such an arrangement. “

When Prof. P.N. Tandon was a part of both the committees and was aware of the irregularities in the Manipal University, why was a go ahead given to the Manipal University, by the review Committee. Does the answer lies with the HRD Minister??

_________________________________________________________
Details taken from UGC website on 13.03.2010

http://www.ugc.ac.in/inside/deemed%20universities/manipal.html

Deemed University
________________________________________
Manipal Academy of Higher Education
Madhav Nagar, Manipal,576104, Karnataka
(A Deemed University declared under Section 3 of the UGC Act,1956)

1. Government of India,Ministry of Human Resource Development notification declaring the Institute as 'Deemed to be University'
• F. 9-8/89-U.3 dated 1st June,1993
• F.9-8/89-U.3Dated 24th April,2000
• F.9-8/89-U.3Dated 25th December,2002

2. Institute(s) under the Deemed to be University at the time of notification • Kasturba Medical College, Manipal and associated teaching hospitals, Manipal
• College of Dental Surgery, Manipal
• College of Nursing, Manipal
• Kasturba Medical College and Associated teaching institutions, Mangalore
• College of Dental Surgery, Mangalore
(vide Notification No.F. 9-8/89-U.3 dated 1st June,1993)

3. Off campus(s)/Instituion(s) under ambit/constituent units(s)/study centre(s) approved by Government of India,Misnitry of Human Resource Development and UGC
• Manipal Institute of Technology & College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal
(vide Notification No.F.9-8/89-U.3 Dated 24th May,2000)
• Welcomegroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration, Manipal
(vide Notification No.F.9-8/89-U.3 Dated 25th December,2002)

4. Off-shore campus(s) approved by Government of India,Ministry of Human Resource Developement and UGC
NONE

5. Courses approved under distance mode Courses to be approved by UGC -AICTE-DEC Joint Committee

6. NAAC accreditation
B+ level (1st October,2002) from the academic year 2002-2003

7. Website http://www.manipal.edu/

DO WE REALLY NEED TO SAY MORE????

Why is it that every time Kapil Sibal appears to miss the wood for the tree?

The doing away of 10th Board, in retrospect was a bad policy decision on many counts, but most importantly for narrow short sighted goals it was the dismantling of Mahatma Gandhi’s larger vision of vocational education after schooling where rising costs and socioeconomic compulsions make it difficult for most parents to bear the burden of further education. Indeed it was the 10th Board that had provided standardization of standards and uniformity for assessments before a student would have embarked on employable skills based training so critical for a country that wishes to improve its literacy rate and capitalize on its demographic dividend.

Similarly all efforts at doing away of numerical assessment in favor of grading that has stood the test of time for a shortsighted and purported benefit of lesser competition and less stress have not taken into account the issues and problems associated with its implementation in later and spirit. The fact of the matter remains that even in most of the IITs today numerical assessment is converted into grades just for the sake of arriving at those grades thus defeating the very purpose of grading.

The latest in the series is the draft Central legislation on the constitution of the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) that proposes to dismantle the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) and sets up another overarching body with immense powers and responsibilities to usher an era of highly centralized and authoritarian institutionalization with little guarantee and safeguards to ensure the vision of academic freedom and decentralized democratic structures of Professor Yash Pal or the agenda of neo-liberal reforms that Sam Pitroda was so impatient to implement. Amusingly the Task Force constituted to aid and advise the MHRD to set up the NCHER has skirted the issue of promoting autonomy, decentralization, competition and privatization of higher education that even Kapil Sibal has been publicly recommending. It is unclear that the orchestrated campaign against the now discredited privately funded deemed universities sparing other private state government recognized Universities and more importantly the public funded Central and other Universities that in many a cases suffer with yet lower quality standards. It is now learnt that some of these Deemed Universities under de novo category were not even allowed to complete their mandated five year term as per Governments own notification before they were recommended for derecognition. It is also preposterous to presume that the façade of a national collegiums of advisers, comprising of core members and another set of co-opted members will not be compromised by the political selection process as has been indeed the case in the past with such positions as the UGC or AICTE or NCTE Chairman’s selections may bear testimony and the past remains a good barometer for future. The patronage of a position for a lifetime is again against all canons of promoting democratization and decentralization and the possible rationale is that it would ensure both continuity and change in the determination of policies in higher education is highly questionable. The Bill also provides for the preparation of a national registry of Vice-Chancellors and mandates that Vice-Chancellors of State universities and even private Universities be appointed from a panel of names selected by the commission from the registry is a very serious affront to the wisdom of others and the freedom and autonomy of the University system, particularly in a federal polity as ours. The issue is not whether the Commission would always act fairly, but whether such an arrangement would be consistent with the principles of autonomy. These decisions have been contrary to the emerging global trends in privatization of higher education and have brought immense disrepute internationally to India’s own academic standing.

Yes true to his inimitable cavalier style Kapil Sibal, again has ensured that the Human Resource Ministry’s acceptance of ‘Tandon Committee Report’ recommending without much ado derecognition of 44 Deemed Universities followed by another 44 in the next three years indeed opens a Pandora’s Box. It is learned that on 18th August, 2009 representatives of these Universities were summoned by the ‘Tandon Committee’ constituted amid much hurry, bypassing the Constitutional Authority, the University Grants Commission (UGC) by the same Ministry of HRD for a hurriedly convened ‘Durbar’ presided over by Dr P N Tandon. It is alleged by the Universities that such a short hearing without any transparent parameters indeed became a meaningless exercise and a mockery of the process which is evident from the fact that 126 Deemed Universities were heard in just 4 days and each one of them was given a mere 10 minutes, wherein only a formal introduction was really possible. Incidentally on verification from the Ministry of HRD sources it is confirmed that till date no copy of the said Report has been furnished or the minimum standards of assessment or parameters were ever been defined or the observations of the Committee been informed to the Universities concerned before recommending the purported action of de-recognition. It also transpires that the UGC, a statutory body, under its Act had earlier appointed an expert committee to visit these institutions and the Deemed to be University status was granted only after a thorough on site inspection, interaction and physical verification of all aspects by the Ministry of Human Resource Development vide its gazette notifications under Section 3 of UGC Act 1956. Ironically, enough it is also understood that the Chairman of this Task Force, Prof. P.N. Tandon, himself is the President of the society of one of the Deemed Universities (under De-Novo category) named National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, Haryana that was recommended to be one of the 38 Universities found to be fit out of the total list of 126 reviewed by him. The fact also remains that one of the members of the said Tandon Committee, Shri Sunil Kumar happened to be one of the handpicked bureaucrats of the then HRD Minister Arjun Singh, who was instrumental in having these Institutions declared as Deemed to be Universities.

Although Education in our country is in the concurrent list, upholding, regulating and maintaining the quality in higher education happens to be the responsibility of Central Government as recently settled by Calcutta High Court which had declared several teacher-training institutions in Bengal illegal as they did not meet NCTE requirements despite their meeting state government standards. In due fairness to the Deemed Universities the purported ‘Tandon’ review exercise was limited to only the Deemed Universities that even included the de novo category, which had not even completed the first five years, before a review was to be undertaken as per government’s own gazette notification. Many of these Universities particularly in remote and rural heartland were infact fulfilling the mandate of Government of India working on various projects with different government and non-government bodies that were in any case based on independent inspections. Some of these Universities included the likes of Gurukul Kangri an age old Institution, Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development and many Universities graded much higher than to even some of the IITs and Central Government Universities. It is lamented by these Universities, a few of whom were even accredited as ISO 9001-2000 Institutions with academic collaborations and independent academic validations with several reputed foreign Universities, Industries and Institutions. Highly aggrieved, notes one of the promoters, having invested huge amounts and despite conforming to every possible guideline issued by the University Grants Commission and the Trust byelaws and regulations that were open to public scrutiny and having the best possible educational standards they have been derecognized by the Government and condemned, unheard and hence deprived of even the Principle of Natural Justice. The review exercise surprisingly enough had spared the State Private Universities and other Central and State Universities where despite huge public expenditures over a number of years no such review was even contemplated. On a cue from the Ministry of HRD, the print and the visual media immediately started a concerted campaign and initiated their own media trial against some of these Universities, surprisingly oblivious of the even poorer standards of the State Universities, State recognized Private Universities and other Central Universities barring a few notable exceptions. As pointed out by one of the Deemed to be Universities, the witch hunting was exacerbated by rival competition and a vicious cartel of vested interests, funneled by greed and demands for illegal gratification by individuals who now plague the corridors of power in the regulatory institutions. They wonder that in the years to come any private capital or enterprise would again dare venture in the arena of higher education in India and allege that even Minister Kapil Sibal appears to have been taken for a ride as he was caught unaware as could be made of from his own press statements.

The entire fiasco as it now emerges has been best summed up recently with some good advice for HRD Minister Kapil Sibal by Oscar Fernandes, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development that he cannot ignore ‘even if there are deficiencies the Deemed Universities should be given another chance’ to promote governments own mandate and to encourage public private partnerships in higher education so that the governments may concentrate more on its promise to ensure quality free and compulsory primary education.