Delhi University to send professors to foreign varsities

Delhi University (DU) is planning to send 70 young college teachers abroad to study emerging disciplines. Though only about 15 science teachers had gone to pursue a masters programme in a foreign university last time, the varsity has decided to extend the scheme to teachers from social sciences and humanities this year. This facility is open only to college teachers aged under 35 years. It aims to encourage teachers to take up new areas of study where the university still lacks expertise.

“We have a scope of sending nearly 70 teachers to study at foreign universities this time. This will be the third batch and 30 teachers have taken up courses in foreign universities so far. The ones, who have come back, are likely to contribute in designing new courses and adding value to the existing curricula,” said a senior DU official. He also said the number of beneficiaries has been increased this year as teachers from social science and humanities can also apply.

The young faculty training programme was launched in 2010 with a grant of Rs. 15 crore (Rs. 150 million) received from the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) as part of the University of Excellence Grant. The university is likely to tie up with University of Edinburgh, University of Nottingham, University of Glasgow, University of Birmingham, University of British Columbia and King’s College, London, to send the teachers there for a post-graduate programme.

“The scheme is designed to bring young faculty of colleges faceto-face with international scholars. The young faculty will pursue courses where we need to strengthen our teaching and learning. The teachers can apply till March 15,” said an official. Selection will be based on the plan of action submitted by the teachers followed by an interview. The disciplines to be offered include economics and econometrics, nanotechnology, electronic sciences, web management, quantitative genetics, among others.

Source: The Times of India, March 12, 2012

12th Plan to look at faculty retention: MHRD

In an attempt to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education to 21% by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan period from the current 13.5%, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is formulating an action plan to achieve this target. It will discuss the matter in an internal meeting on Tuesday.

Raising the GER would entail an additional enrollment of over 26 million in higher education and almost 1 million school teachers by 2020. “Thus, a concerted strategy to retain best talents in universities for faculty positions and preparing secondary teachers needs to be formulated. It would also require changes in strategies relating to open learning and technology enabled learning,” said a ministry note.

For faculty attraction and retention, the ministry is mulling Human Resource Planning and Management (HRPM) centres at the university level to assess teacher requirement and plan their professional growth research and faculty development programmes such as seminars, training, workshops, incentive and award schemes.

Besides faculty development, the meeting — which will happen at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati — will also discuss vocationalisation through short and medium-term training to achieve 50% enrolment in vocational education sector of higher education by 2020. This is so because even after achieving a GER of 30%, there would be 150 million or more youth who would require vocational education, the ministry says.

Encouragement to private investment is next on the agenda with substantial role of private sector at diploma and degree programmes. On the research and innovation front, the government may look at Sector Innovation Councils that would provide platforms for innovation right from school to higher education and would be developed alongwith at least 50 centres of innovation in different institutions of higher learning.

In fact, the note asks for appropriate amendments in the Copyright Law to foster creativity and to keep it in harmony with the features of the World Intellectual Property Organization. Also on the agenda of Tuesday’s meeting is the much ignored local languages along with book promotion and reading habits.

Source: The Financial Express, July 26, 2011