Model Act for Universities

Traditionally, Universities have been established as major institutions for providing higher education and research opportunities to the youth for shaping their future, and recognized as the most important indicator of a country's future. More recently, the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education (Paris, 1998) has also observed that higher education and research act as essential components of culture, socio-economic and environmentally sustainable development of individuals, communities and nations, since the society is now becoming increasingly knowledge based. In this backdrop, University education has become crucial in preparing a healthy, skilled and agile intellectual human force with facilities for life-long learning, that enables countries to continuously assess, adapt and apply new knowledge. As a result, the development of University education and research has been receiving high priority the world over. Though India has been attaching considerable importance to higher learning all along, a phenomenal growth of the University system in the country has been witnessed only since independence, with the number of Universities increasing from 18 in the year 1947 to nearly 300 now. Indian Universities, like their counterparts elsewhere in the world, have been performing many additional functions now a days, e.g., undertaking sponsored R&D and continuing education, providing knowledge-based advice and consultancy, preparation / publication of educational material like books / study reports / research papers and extending services to society. Of late, the world-wide advances, particularly in new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), are greatly influencing the University system in the country. However, major issues like size, access, equity, relevance, quality and resource constraints continue to dominate the working of Indian Universities. Thus, in the 21st century, Universities are becoming complex institutions with many distinctive features that set them apart from other social and business institutions. This calls for the adoption of an appropriate strategy for their governance, organization and management, for which the University Act is an important instrument. Model Act is a useful generic concept which aims at assisting the University system in the country to bring in some uniformity in the working of Universities for mutual benefit. Updating the Acts of Indian Universities at this time through a Model Act framework, can be helpful in:

1. Discharging its powers and functions to achieve its objects and goals, like:

   1. Creation, Preservation and Dissemination of knowledge and attainment of excellence in different disciplines;

   2. Smooth transition from the earlier teacher-centric focus to the required learner-centric educational processes and activities;

   3. Performing all the functions of interest to its major constituents like faculty, staff, students and society to reach a leadership position;

   4. Developing a sense of ethos in the University community, making it conscious of its obligations to the society and the nation;

   5. Accepting the challenges of globalization to offer high quality education and other services in a competitive manner.

2. Providing it freedom:
   
   

   1. Introduce democratization in its working, well suited to its functions/tasks;

   2. Insulate itself from interference by agencies outside the University system;

   3. Develop a system of working based on responsibility and accountability.

3. Facilitating it to be flexible / responsive to rapid changes taking place in the society;

4. Making provision for a legal frame work for it to function smoothly;

5. Earning for it the general confidence and respect of the society at large.

Major recommendations of Committees appointed by the Government of India and the UGC from time to time, to review the governance, organization and management of Universities in the country, as well as on the Model Act for Universities have been summarized in Table 1...In all, the Reports of five Committees on this subject, in a 33-year period (1964-97), have been considered in this Table. It has been well brought out in the Reports of these Committees that the success of a University depends not only on the Act, but also on its personnel, their sense of dedication, discipline and responsibility, and the traditions/conventions they establish. It has also been observed by one of the Committees that it is necessary for the academics and administrators of higher education to examine the matter of governance of Universities and the content of University education from time to time, as social change has been taking place at a breath taking pace now a days. Besides, experimentation should be the key essence of University education, as the content and teaching methodology have to keep pace with the explosive growth of knowledge. Other major recommendations of the Committees include:

1. Regular review of the Act followed by changes if any, for the system to be dynamic;

2. Governor of State as Visitor, and he to appoint a renowned academic as Chancellor;

3. Procedure for the appointment of Vice Chancellor and other statutory Officers;

4. Court(Senate) to be an important University Body;

5. Academic Council to be truly the highest academic Authority;

6. Visitor to appoint Block Grant Committees for State Universities in each Plan time;

7. UGC to seek advice of the CAG of India to simplify Universities financial practices;

8. Procedure for nominating/electing members for University Bodies;

9. Model Act to be concise; Statutes/Ordinances, to be in detail to ease implementation;

10. Need for Central legislation on basic structure of Model Act for the States to follow

11. Conventional Universities in a State to have a common Act;

12. UGC to provide advice/guidance to ensure the quality/standard of higher education.

One Committee has also noted that the recommendations of earlier Committees on University governance and Model Act have not been implemented in the University system in a satisfactory manner so far, which needs to be remedied soon. For this purpose, the Committee has suggested to have separate strategies for each of the University related constituencies, viz., Government of India, UGC, State Governments and Governing Bodies of Universities,. However, this is not acceptable to another Committee, which has reviewed these recommendations in a later year.. All these issues and the recommendations of various Committees summarized in Table 1, form the basis of the work of the present Committee towards formulation of a Model Act for Universities of the 21st century in India, which is covered in this Paper.

Table 2 summarizes important features of present-day Universities in the country, It is seen from this Table, that the University system has a number of different types of institutions and .there are wide variations in their missions, goals and objectives... The Universities also have different traditions and conventions established. Besides, the social milieu in which the Universities have been set up are also different. However, all the Universities generally fall into the following three categories, based on their organizational structure:

1. Affiliating Universities, having University Departments, Constituent Colleges and Affiliated Colleges, with single or multiple campuses;

2. Unitary Universities having University Departments and Constituent Colleges, with single or multiple campuses;

3. Private Universities, mostly of the unitary type and having distributed campuses.

It is also seen from this Table that conventional Universities form a significant segment of the University system in India at present. They have a long standing, with most of them being multi-faculty institutions engaged in general education in faculties like Arts, Science, Commerce. . They also have a provision to recognize some affiliated colleges of proven merit as autonomous colleges. While, University funding by Central/State Governments has been a well established tradition in the country, this practice is steadily declining now a days. The setting up of professional Universities(e.g., technical, medical, law) and deemed Universities (by Private/Joint Sector) is relatively new in the country, with the latter category expanding rapidly in recent years. However, private Universities and virtual Universities are of very recent origin, and they are only at few locations at present. But, due to the commercial nature of their activities, their number and nationwide spread are likely to increase in the coming years. Foreign Universities in the country, are yet very few in number being mostly located in bigger cities . But, with the globalization of higher education and increased emphasis being laid by them on professional courses, it is expected that this category will also expand rapidly in the coming years. It is useful to note that, so far, only a small segment of the University system covered in Table 2 has exhibited its readiness to meet the challenges of the 21st century. This makes it necessary to look into this issue from all angles and correct the situation urgently, for all the Universities in the country to become Universities of the 21st century.

Besides the above differences in types of Universities, there are also wide variations in their working cultures. More often, the Universities have a culture that is a mix of academic and bureaucratic cultures. While the academic units like faculties, departments, colleges, schools are generally academic in their approach, the central administration manned by officials may not be so. And, it is often likely to be of the bureaucratic type. Some times, this can result in difficulties, as academic decisions being based on committees deliberations may not be always easy and practical for implementation by the concerned officials.. In such situations, it is only the wisdom and positive approach of senior academics in the University hierarchy that can come to the rescue of the system. More recently, with many additional functions being taken up by Universities, two new cultures have now come up, viz., commercial culture and corporate culture. The former culture is useful to support activities like continuing education, testing and consultancy, distance education and publication / distribution of course material, which are important for revenue generation and time bound work. On the other hand, the latter culture emphasizes the leadership role provided by senior academics/officials and the top-down planning and monitoring practices which may be introduced by them in the functioning of the University. However, such a mixed culture and its possible benefits have yet to be well accepted in the Indian University system.

A generalized University of the 21^st century has to respond to the changing needs of the society, which are now technology driven and are becoming highly informative and knowledge intensive, bringing in fundamental changes in the way human beings live, learn, interact, work and conduct their every-day activities. However, it is useful to note that learning is a personalized process not dependent on technology, whereas educating is a social process dependent on interactivities between learners and teachers which may make use of tools and technologies. As a result, education has to keep pace with the world wide changes taking place so rapidly in all major sectors of the society, like social, cultural, economic and political, all of them being driven by the on-going ICT revolution. Teachers and academic communities have a central role to play in this situation, like mentoring, guiding, exploring, integrating information, developing learners identities through role modelling and facilitating group activity. Technology is required here to support and enhance this role, which needs to be facilitated at a generalized University of the 21^st century in a satisfactory manner. This can be done under the framework of the University's Act, with built-in flexibility to introduce changes as and when necessary in response to its changing needs. This forms the basis for the guidelines for a Model Act for Indian Universities of the 21^st century. Referring to Table 2 which summarizes important features of the present University system in India, and the on-going globalization in the higher education sector, the steady reduction in Government funding of the Universities, the increasing influence of ICT on education and the rapidly shrinking time scale of change in these developments as brought out in the previous sections, it is observed that a generalized University of the 21^st century in the country has to perform multiple functions like,

1. Educational;
2. Sponsored Research and Consultancy;
3. Continuing Education and Extension;
4. Development and Services, and
5. Management

Some of these functions are traditional, whereas many others are new. However, important aspects of each of these functions are briefly described below :

Educational Functions

The following guidelines are suggested as the basis for formulating a Model Act for the 21st century Universities in India, based on the above discussion. Some of these guidelines depend on the traditions prevailing in the University system in India; But, some others are necessary to meet the various expectations from Indian Universities in the 21st century, as brought out in the previous section. These guidelines together with other concepts outlined in Part I of the Paper form the basis of the Questionnaire given in Part II. It is expected that the responses from the University community to the questions included herein will be of great help in the actual formulation of a Model Act. It is also expected that such an Act will be applicable to all the types of Universities in the country.