K Sanjay Murthy, Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Government of India on November 30 said that India has around 50,000 large bodies of institutions with only 1,000 accredited so far. However, the pace has increased, and we have now six to seven state governments committed to accrediting these institutions in a fixed time frame. This accreditation drive is pivotal to establishing a certain standard of quality, ensuring that industry leaders can confidently select candidates from these institutions, he added, as per a press release from FICCI. He was speaking at the FICCI Higher Education Summit 2023 in New Delhi on November 30, Thursday.
Murthy also spoke of a strategic initiative to involve industry professionals in mentoring faculty members. “We are coming out with a strategy to see that we have industry professionals mentoring certain faculty on designing, thinking and entrepreneurship so that the entire start-up ecosystem, the design of manufacturing products also plays a role in the pursuit of excellence that these sectors plan to achieve,” he added.
Speaking on the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Murthy added, “The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has liberated many academic institutions to look beyond what they were doing in the past and discover new avenues for providing better education to the students of our country.”
Speaking on the new technology platforms rolled out by the government, he stated that Samarth is being launched in many of the institutions and we will ensure that we cover at least 10,000 institutions in the next 1.5 years.
Highlighting the mentioning of these technological platforms in the G20 Declaration, Murthy emphasised that Samarth, Swayam and Diksha (at the school level) find a key mention of digital public infrastructure in the New Delhi Leaders Declaration. “We feel that these can be leveraged further for the benefit of the countries in the global south,” he stated.
Dr Vidya Yeravdekar, Chair, FICCI Higher Education Committee & Pro-Chancellor, Symbiosis International University expressed optimism about the transformative era for students under the NEP 2020. “Students immersed in multidisciplinary learning are empowered with tremendous flexibility through the academic bank of credit, and this has contributed to creating significant educational possibilities both for our students and institutions,” she added.
