Guidelines for Transforming Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) into Multidisciplinary Institutions

Preamble:

India has domain specific stand-alone colleges and universities. Even in multidisciplinary HEIs the disciplinary boundaries are so rigid that the opportunities to learn and explore different disciplines are less explored. It is therefore, pertinent for Higher Education System (HES) to phase out stand-alone, fragmented and domain specific HEIs to create HEI clusters and multidisciplinary HEIs instead. Such institutions will impart education with strong values and skill sets.

The way proposed in the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 to end fragmentation of higher education is by transforming all affiliated or constituent colleges to attain the status either alone or through collaboration with nearby institutions in the form of clusters. The overall higher education sector will be an HES including professional and vocational education.

Objectives:

Ø  Transform single stream institutions into large multidisciplinary universities and autonomous degree-awarding HEIs.

Ø  Strengthen institutional infrastructure necessary for multidisciplinary education and research. 

 Approaches towards the Setting Up of Multidisciplinary HEIs: 

Ø  Academic collaboration between institutions through HEI clusters, leading to multidisciplinary research and education in different modes.

Ø  Merger of single-stream institutions with other multidisciplinary institutions under the same management or different managements

Ø  Strengthening of institutions by adding departments in subjects such as – languages, literatures, music, philosophy, Indology, arts, dance, theatre, social work, etc. needed for a multidisciplinary institution.

Perspective Plan:

In order to achieve the above objective of making a college a multidisciplinary institution one must have a plan ready for the initial one year and three years from the present. R.L.S.Y. College, Aurangabad aims to achieve following objectives in the upcoming year:

Ø  College to start B.Lib.Sc. Course in the upcoming year to grow in the direction of self-reliance.

Ø  College to begin Masters Degree course in Hindi, English and History.

Ø  College to begin counselling Centre and services to the needy students of the college.Ø  College faculties will engage themselves in more and more research activities by providing guidance to the Ph.D. students.

Ø  College to organize more and more cultural and educational programmes on multi-lingual, regional and cultural diversities.

Ø  College faculties will be engaged more in Faculty Induction Programmes (FIPs), Faculty Development Programmes (FDPs), Seminars and Workshops by actively participating in it.

After achieving above objectives, the college aims to achieve another few long-term objectives in the three years’ time. These objectives are:

Ø  College will have increasing numbers of MOUs and collaboration with national and international institutions and agencies for academics, research and extension.

Ø  Training and financial support for students to participate in international, national, state, district or local level events and competitions

Ø  Promote discipline-oriented training programmes and placement drives for students.

Ø  Green audit will be completed in another three years time.

Ø  The college aims to start courses on population studies, remote sensing, security and intelligence studies, development studies, etc.         

Vision Document: 

A college must have vision document where it should clearly state its aims and objectives for five years and 10 years’ time, so that it can have a steady path towards that journey. R.L.S.Y. College, Aurangabad has clearly mentioned its vision in upcoming five to 10 years’ time in its vision document. Its vision in five years’ time is:

Ø  College to have a separate science block in a separate building.

Ø  College to have more classrooms to accommodate the growing number of students.

Ø  College to have more faculties and non-teaching staffs to absorb the pressure of growing workload.

Ø  College to have a registered alumni association working to promote the interests of the college worldwide.

Ø  College to become greener and have a separate organic garden.

 The 10 years vision of R.L.S.Y. College is:

Ø  College will procure A++ Grade in NAAC Accreditation in future assessment cycles.

Ø  College to become more and more autonomous in its working

Ø  College to have post-graduate courses in Science, Commerce and Arts stream alongwith the under-graduate courses in all streams.           

Ø  College to have a greater number of vocational courses and fully equipped state of the art libraries and laboratories and classrooms.