Lobbying on for education watchdog berths

Leading academicians have started lobbying for top posts in India’s proposed overarching higher education watchdog even before its birth, exposing what some officials and academicians are dubbing a typical scramble for post-retirement slots.

The academicians have applied to the human resource development ministry for membership in the unborn National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER), risking allegations of conflict of interest and pure desperation.

Leading the race is professor Vijay Khole, who was a member of the Yash Pal panel on higher education that proposed the NCHER to end nepotism and inbreeding that plague Indian higher education.

Khole recently ended his tenure as vice-chancellor of the University of Mumbai.

“I am shocked. Khole’s application is a clear case of conflict of interest. This is unfortunate and disgusting,” said a senior academician, who was also on the Yash Pal panel, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

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Medical, agri-education kept outside NCHER ambit

In a bid to avoid a turf war, the HRD ministry has decided to keep agriculture and medical education outside the scope of the proposed  National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER). On Monday, the Central Advisory Board of Education (Cabe) approved the proposal for NCHER. It also approved the setting up of a collegium of eminent academics and experts under NCHER to suggest candidates for the post of vice-chancellor of universities and other top academic and research posts.

While agriculture is a state subject, the ministry of health had expressed its reservations about subsuming of the Medical Council of India into the overarching regulatory body for higher education to the Cabinet Secretary. The health ministry’s objections got stronger after President Pratibha Patil announced that a National Council for Human Resources in Health would be set up as an overarching regulatory body for the health sector to reform the current regulatory framework and enhance supply of skilled personnel. With the six medical councils out of the purview of the proposed body, NCHER will now incorporate regulatory bodies like AICTE, NCTE, UGC and Distance Education Council into its fold.

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Fetters await ‘free’ education agency

The new “independent” higher education accreditation authority promised by Kapil Sibal may remain crucially dependent on the human resource development ministry in the selection of its members, potentially limiting its autonomy in taking decisions.

Unlike the proposed National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) to regulate higher education, the promised accreditation body is likely to be picked through an HRD ministry selection process, top government officials have said.

The indications have come from the first draft of the National Authority for Regulation in Accreditation of Higher Educational Institutions Bill, 2009, to create the new agency. The Telegraph has access to the draft.

HRD minister Sibal, announcing his 100-day agenda of action, had promised an “independent authority for mandatory accreditation of all higher educational institutions” along with the NCHER to subsume India’s myriad regulators.

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