A Parliamentary panel has recommended to review the impact of the ‘experiment’ to provide courses in humanities in technology institutions so as to assess its impact on the institutions. The committee headed by Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Member of Parliament (MP), Rajya Sabha also noted that there was an urgent need to revisit and revamp the norms for starting online courses and efforts be made towards offering a level playing field as far as grants in aid were concerned.

The panel, however, suggested that the Ministry of Education should consider incentivising engineering education in regional languages by way of awards for good translators and writers on engineering subjects in regional languages.“However, keeping in view the broad thrust of National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 towards holistic and multidisciplinary education, the committee also recommends the incorporation of social sciences, humanities, arts modules in the technical education curriculum for the development of students with well-rounded personalities,” the panel report said.

The committee also recommended that the Department of Higher Education, UGC and universities should collectively review the current state of academia-industry partnerships and take measures to strengthen them further as these can greatly help mitigate the shortage of skilled workforce.

“The panel is of the view that such collaboration between the industry and higher educational institutions would help students develop crucial entrepreneurship and business skills, provide hands-on experience and help create a robust talent pool. The parameters for assessment and recognition of various courses under regulatory bodies need to be updated to bring them in tune with the current best practices,” the report said.

Institutional Leadership and Management course for aspiring and existing principals or administrative heads of the colleges to give them exposure to the management skills required to lead the institutions, formulating a Comprehensive National Research Policy encompassing all kinds of research activities, both in social as well as physical sciences, a blueprint be prepared for each of the HEIs to be followed to enhance the standards of education all across the country, are also among the recommendations made by the panel.

“The committee, keeping in view the global trend in student learning, recommends that the Department of Higher Education along with its bodies must undertake an expert study to help provide avenues towards empowering students to chart their education pathways as per their needs and interest, leveraging traditional and other partnerships to bolster learning and making efforts towards ensuring widespread diffusion of education,” the report mentioned.