What is the News ?

14 States and Union Territories are yet to sign a crucial Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Union Education Ministry.

Facts About:

Higher education Institutions (HEIs) in India

Statistics

As per the AISHE report 2020-21, there are 1,113 Universities, 43,796 Colleges, and 11,296 Stand Alone Institutions.

• There are 422 State Public Universities that have 41,836 affiliated colleges.
• 446 Universities are privately managed and 475 Universities are located in rural areas, 17 are women-centric universities.

Total enrolment in higher education has been estimated to be 4.13 crores with 2.12 crores boys and 2.01 crores females.

• Females constitute 48.7% of the total enrolment.

There are 2,255 students enrolled in Integrated Ph.D. in addition to 2.11 lakh students enrolled in Ph.D. Level.

Major problems currently faced by the higher education system in India – As identified by National Education Policy 2020:

• A severely fragmented higher educational ecosystem; less emphasis on the development of cognitive skills and learning outcomes;
• A rigid separation of disciplines, early specialization, and streaming of students into narrow areas of study;
• Limited access particularly in socio-economically disadvantaged areas, with few HEIs that teach in local languages;
• Limited teacher and institutional autonomy;
• Inadequate mechanisms for merit-based career management and progression of faculty and institutional leaders;
• Lesser emphasis on research at most universities and colleges, and lack of competitive peer-reviewed research funding across disciplines;
• Suboptimal governance and leadership of HEIs;
• An ineffective regulatory system; and large affiliating universities result in low standards of undergraduate education.
• PM-USHA aims to address the key gaps and issues identified by NEP 2020. 

What is Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (PM-USHA)?

Background

• Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) was a Centrally Sponsored Scheme to fund States/UTs institutions.
• It was launched with the vision to attain higher levels of access, equity, and excellence in the State higher education system with greater efficiency, transparency, accountability, and responsiveness.
• The first phase of the scheme was launched in 2013 and the second phase was launched in 2018.
• Now, in the light of the National Education Policy, RUSA scheme has been launched as Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (PM-USHA).

About

• It is a centrally sponsored scheme of the Government of India executed through the Ministry of Education.
• The scheme aims to work with over 300 HEIs including the state universities, its affiliated colleges to raise the quality of education. 

Key Objectives of Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan

The key objectives of PM-USHA are to improve access, equity and quality in higher education through planned development of higher education at the state level. 

The objectives also include:

• creating new academic institutions,
• expanding and upgrading the existing ones,
• developing institutions that are self-reliant in terms of quality education, professionally managed, and characterized by greater inclination towards research.

Funding

• The PM-USHA aims at providing strategic funding to eligible state higher educational institutions.
• The central funding is based on norms and is outcome dependent.
• Funds flow from the central ministry through the state governments/union territories before reaching the identified institutions.
• Funding to states is made on the basis of the critical appraisal of State Higher Education Plans, which enlist each state’s strategy to address issues of equity, access and excellence in higher education.

Source: https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/upload_document/pm-usha_guidelines.pdf