Will be available in a month on INFLIBNET portal, says UGC Vice-Chairman

University Grants Commission Vice-Chairman H. Devaraj said that e-content for 77 undergraduate and 78 postgraduate subjects would be ready in a month and available on the UGC’s INFLIBNET portal.

The initiative was part of the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development’s National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology for which Rs. 400 crore had been allotted.

“Of this, Rs. 100 crore was given to the UGC. We have taken up two programmes under this — developing e-content for UG colleges for 77 subjects and e-PG Pathsala for 78 subjects. The e-content will be ready in a month. It will be available on INFLIBNET portal and students can download for free,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an international conference at VIT University on Saturday.

Once the e-content is available, there will be no need for books, he said, adding that they would shortly bring out Massive Online Open Courses.

Speaking at the valedictory of the conference on Internationalisation of Higher Education and Quality Assurance, he said Tamil Nadu was leading in the country after crossing 48 per cent Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education.

“States such as Orissa and Bihar are yet to cross 10 per cent GER, while the overall GER in the country is 19 per cent. We have a long way to go,” he said.

In the last 60 years, UGC has established “an excellent base” for the country and controls 39,671 colleges and 761 universities now.

“We have provided enough general development assistance for institutions,” he said.

“UGC has provided all basic facilities and now expects excellence and quality. We will review and monitor our programmes in colleges and universities. We will bring in an effective monitoring system for this,” he further said.

He stressed on creating an academic environment to look at the needs of the country and needs of the industry. Crowd sourcing should be done and latest technology has to be adopted, he added.

Professor Devaraj emphasised the importance of appointing visionary Vice Chancellors and good teachers.

Under the Singh-Obama initiative, 268 faculty members have been selected this year to go to the United States. He said every year, 300 teachers will be selected for this programme.

NAAC deadline

Prof. Devaraj said UGC has made National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accreditation mandatory for all colleges and universities.

“All institutions should apply for NAAC accreditation before June. Accreditation and assessment is important but NAAC had problems of staff shortage. We have provided 25 persons for NAAC,” he said.

With the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill pending in Parliament, he said once this is passed, many regional centres might come up and even private agencies may enter into accreditation process.

VIT University Chancellor G. Viswanathan said steps should be taken to see that at least 10 per cent of total international students come to India for higher education.