Higher education vision document 2020 unveiled

The Vision Document 2020, prepared by the state’s higher education council and presented at the council’s first meeting in the city on Wednesday, proposed that general universities should be set up in all districts of the state.

There are, at present, nine such universities in the state. The aim is to have one general university in each district, or one university for every 100 colleges. This means that ideally, there should be at least 22 such universities in the state’s 29 districts.

The document, divided into three, deals with access to higher education and the need to expand the system in the first section; it deals in the second section with issues of quality; the third section is on inclusiveness and equity.

Members of the council explained that the vision document’s aim is already being implemented in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, where universities have been set up at the district level. However, the document is still under discussion.

The vice-chairman of the council, IM Savadatti said, “This is a vision document, and it has only just been presented at the first meeting of the council. The issues it takes up will be discussed in the next meeting of the council.”

AS Srikanth, principal secretary of the state department of higher education, who is also a member of the council that prepared the document said, “The aim is to attain a Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in the state of 20% by the year 2020. Currently, the state’s GER in higher education is 11.6%.”

Another important vision of the council is to make the universities and colleges work round-the-clock as learning centres.

“At present, colleges are isolated units, active only in a limited period. It is necessary to make them work round-the-clock, through the year, as learning centres. We would also like to grant greater autonomy to more colleges,” said Srikanth.