Development of Higher Education in India

At present, the higher education, system comprising of general, technical, medical and agricultural streams, is fragmented in terms of structures and policies. Greater cooperation among the streams should be encouraged by promoting networking, sharing of facilities and development of manpower including teachers’ training/orientation facilities. There should be greater coherence in policy and planning. To adequately meet these requirements, the NPE had envisaged the establishment of a National Council of Higher Education (NCHE). This has, however, not made progress so far and a coordination mechanism should be constituted during the plan period. Several measures will be taken to promote excellence. The, NPEPOA proposal for establishment of a National Accreditation Council (NAC) would be followed up. Apart from continuing the existing programmes of CAS/DAS, COSIST and the Inter-University Centres, IUCEC and the proposed INFLIBNET, New Inter-University Centres would be established to provide facilities in the emerging areas like biotechnology, atmospheric science, oceanography, electronics and computer sciences.