People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No.
23
June 06, 2010
|
Vol. XXXIV
No.
23 June 06, 2010 |
THE
REVISED DRAFT BILL
FOR NCHER
Towards
Complete Control
over
Higher Education
Vijender
Sharma
THE
draft of National Commission for Higher Education and Research
(NCHER) Bill, 2010 uploaded by the ministry of human resource
development, in
February, on its website (http://www.education.nic.in/) received strong
criticism and opposition from students, academia, people’s
representatives and
several states including
Two
main issues, apart from several others, (1) over centralisation of
higher
education and (2) attack on the federal structure affecting
centre-state
relations remain crucial. The HER bill includes cleverly drafted
formulations
but creating confusion by the choice of alternative words (with similar
meaning
as in the first draft) and creation of new bodies, the general council,
inferior in its mandate compared to collegium of scholars, as well as
Higher
Education Financial Services Corporation.
The
states will continue to be marginalised. They cannot start a university
unless
permitted to do so by the commission (NCHER). The states may appoint
their own
vice chancellors but subject to the Regulations to be made under the
proposed
law. The corporate culture will decide which institution, university
(both
central and state) and college, etc., should be funded and on what
basis.
In
this article, the provisions of two draft bills, the NCHER bill and HER
bill,
are being compared section by section.
The
preamble of NCHER bill included “university education, technical and
professional education other than agricultural and medical education”.
However,
the preamble of HER bill includes all education except agricultural
education.
The definition of ‘higher education’ [Section 3] excludes agricultural
education ‘in institutions other than universities’. This means that
agricultural education being imparted in universities is within the
scope of
the NCHER.
All
provisions of the NCHER bill were to be implemented simultaneously. But
under
HER bill, different provisions can be implemented from different dates
[Section
1(3)]. Thus implementation of any of the provisions can be deferred by
the
central government at its will.
COMMISSION
OF
UNEQUALS
The
commission continues to be of seven members who will be appointed by a selection
committee
consisting of the prime minister, speaker of Lok Sabha, the leader of
the
opposition in Lok Sabha and two ministers in charge of higher education
and
medical education [section 5(5)]. The
chairperson, three whole-time
members and three other members of the commission will hold office for
a term
of five years. The status of chairperson and all members of the
commission,
section 12(4) of NCHER bill, was to be same as that of the chief
election
commissioner or election commissioners respectively. This provision has
been
changed in HER bill [section 10(2)] and non-whole-time members will not
have
the status of election commissioners.
In
NCHER bill, the distinction between members was on two counts: (1)
Qualification: While the chairperson and the whole-time members were to
be
persons “possessing leadership abilities and proven capacity for
institution
building”, other members were to be with “proven contribution to
economic and
social development and experience of engagement with institutions of
higher
learning and research”. (2) The chairperson and whole-time members were
to be
salaried employees and other members only allowance holders.
In
HER bill, another distinction has been added regarding status of the
members:
those having status of election commissioners and those without that
status.
With these three distinctions, the commission itself will not be a
cohesive
body and will be composed of unequals. Thus, practically four members
will
control the commission.
GENERAL
COUNCIL
Under
NCHER bill, there was a provision for establishing a “collegium”
consisting
of “core fellows and co-opted fellows, being persons of eminence and
integrity in academia in higher education and research.” Core fellow
was to be
a national research professor, or a recipient of the Nobel Prize or
field medal
or Jnanpith award, or a member of an academy of international standing.
The
numbers of core fellows and their appointing authority was not provided
in the
bill. There was no provision under which states could recommend persons
as core
fellows. The co-opted fellows were to be chosen by core fellows to
represent
each state and union territory from a panel of five persons recommended
by the
respective governments. The representatives of states and UTs were
given second
class status as they were to depend on the support of core fellows. The
states
and UTs were treated with contempt. The term of core fellows and
co-opted
fellows was to be life time and five years respectively. Lifetime
appointments
generate vested interests and akin to breeding corruption.
The
institution of collegiums was strongly criticized. It was an
institution to undermine the role of states in higher education despite
the
fact the states spend more money on higher education than the central
government. In order to deflect from this, but still centralising all
powers in
the field of higher education, a new chapter
on the establishment of
general council, as an advisory body, has been added in the HER bill
[sections
15 and 16]. It
appears that the general council
has been created to take care of the criticism by state governments.
These
sections are deceptive, nothing concrete has been provided. The HER
bill with
creation of deliberate confusion is also, by and large, against the
federal
structure.
The
general council will consist of 79 members including one representative
of each
state and union territory such as vice chairman of state higher
education
council or vice chancellor of a state university, all heads of
professional bodies
and research councils, and one central university vice chancellor, one
IIT
director, one IIM director (in rotation) and ten academics from such
fields
like agriculture, medicine, environment, economics, Indian languages,
etc. The
general council will meet once in six months.
The
general council will advise the commission on enhancing access,
inclusion and
equity; connecting higher education and research to the practice of
professions; measures to remove imbalances (including those relating to
regions,
academic disciplines, gender and other socio-economic factors);
adequacy of
funding of higher education; statement and report prepared by the
commission;
and on the course of reforms to rejuvenate higher education and
research. It
can amend every measure or regulation proposed by the commission by
two-thirds
majority of its members present and voting. Such amendments will be
binding on
the commission.
COLLEGIUM
OF
SCHOLARS
In
HER bill, the
‘collegium’ has been redefined as ‘collegium of scholars’ with
30-fellows which
will be constituted by the central government with persons of integrity
and
eminence in higher education and research [sections 17(2)]. Distinction
between
core fellows and co-opted fellows of collegium provided in the NCHER
bill has
been done away with.
The first fellows will be
persons who
are or have been national research professors or recipients of Nobel
prize and
Fields medal. Their membership will be for life. If no such person is
willing
to be a fellow, the selection committee headed by the prime minister
will
nominate ten persons of integrity and eminence in higher education and
research
who will be the first fellows of the collegium. Their term will be for
a period
of ten years. These fellows will propose the rest of the fellows for a
ten year
term.
The distinction between
first
fellows, in the category of national research professors and recipients
of
Nobel prize and fields medal, and other fellows is similar to two types
of
membership as it existed earlier among core fellows and co-opted
fellows.
The collegium will aid and
advise the
commission, [sections 19, HER bill], for the determination,
co-ordination,
maintenance of standards in higher education and research and recommend
a
vision on the emerging trends in different fields of knowledge. It will
propose
the names of three persons for the appointments of chairperson and
other
members of the commission. It will assess the performance of the
commission and
also make recommendations in respect of the statements and reports of
the
commission. It will also propose a set of names to the President of
India for
constituting a committee to review the performance of the commission.
From the functions of
general council
and collegium, it is seen that some of the powers of the two bodies are
overlapping. But the functions of collegium are wider than those of
general
council.
DECEPTIVE
CHANGE
The NCHER bill had
provided for the
preparation, by the collegium, of national registry of persons eligible
and
qualified to be the vice chancellors of universities or the heads of
the
institutions of national importance. The names
of suitable persons eligible and
qualified for appointment as vice chancellors of universities for
inclusion in
the national registry proposed to the commission by the central
government,
state governments, or universities were to be referred to the collegium
for
assessing their suitability and competence [section 20(2)].
The power of
the states
to appoint vice chancellors of their state universities was taken away.
They
were to depend first on the recommendation of the collegium, heavily
dominated
by core fellows appointed for lifetime, for inclusion of persons in the
national registry and then on the list of five persons provided by the
commission. No person could be appointed as the vice chancellor if
his/her name
was not included in the national registry.
This
provision has been
changed and
national
registry has been renamed as directory of academics for leadership
positions in
the HER bill [section 20]. The collegium will recommend names for
inclusion
in the directory. The central government, state governments,
universities,
professional bodies and research councils and state higher education
councils
can also recommend the names for inclusion in the directory. However,
such
names will be forwarded to collegiums, as earlier, and will be included
only if
they satisfy the standards to be set out under its section 25.
The commission will
recommend a panel
of five names to the central government for the appointment of vice
chancellor
for a central university. State governments can appoint their vice
chancellors
without reference to this directory of academics [section 29(3), HER
bill]. But
such vice chancellors must satisfy the standards which will be set out
in regulations
[section 25] about which at present nothing is known. Thus the freedom
of the
states to appoint their vice chancellors has been restricted to this
extent.
The 5-member executive
council of the
collegium has been dropped. But its functions will be performed by the
chair or
co-chair selected by majority from amongst fellows of the collegium for
a term
of two years [Section 22].
(To be continued)
