New Delhi: In accordance with the decision of the Prime Minister for finalizing a five-year vision plan for each Ministry, the Department of Higher Education of HRD Ministry has finalized and released a five-year vision plan named Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme (EQUIP).
This report has been prepared after a detailed exercise done by the Experts covering the following ten areas:
Group Number Group Focus Chair Person
Group 1: Strategies for expanding access Shri Hasmukh Adhia, Chancellor, Central University Gujarat
Group 2: Towards global best teaching/learning process , Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Chancellor, Central University of Rajasthan & former Secretary, Dept of Space; former Chairman – ISRO
Group 3 : Promoting Excellence, Shri Pawan Goenka, Chairman, BoG, IIT Madras
Group 4: Governance reforms, Prof M S Ananth, Chairman, National Testing Agency (NTA)
Group 5: Assessment, Accreditation & Ranking systems, Prof Surendra Prasad, former Director, IIT Delhi
Group 6: Promotion of research & innovation, Dr. Vijaya Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to PM
Group 7: Employability & entrepreneurship, Shri Ajit Balakrishnan, former Chairman, IIM Kolkata
Group 8: Using Technology for better reach, Prof Deepak Pathak, Chairman, NIT Goa & Prof IIT Bombay
Group 9: Internationalisation, Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog
Group 10: Financing higher education, Shri. Kris Gopalakrishnan, former CEO, Infosys.
The ten Expert Groups drawn from senior academicians, administrators and industrialists, have suggested more than 50 initiatives that would transform the higher education sector completely. The Groups have set the following goals for higher education sector:
Double the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education and resolve the geographically and socially skewed access to higher education institutions in India
Upgrade the quality of education to global standards
Position at least 50 Indian institutions among the top-1000 global universities
Introduce governance reforms in higher education for well-administered campuses
Accreditation of all institutions as an assurance of quality
Promote Research & Innovation ecosystems for positioning India in the Top-3 countries in the world in matters of knowledge creation
Double the employability of the students passing out of higher education
Harness education technology for expanding the reach and improving pedagogy
Promote India as a global study destination
Achieve a quantum increase in investment in higher education.
For each initiative, the Groups have recommended modalities for implementation, investments and timelines. The proposal would now be taken for inter-departmental consultations and appraisal through the EFC mechanism before being taken to Cabinet for approval.
