Universities, Colleges to be transformed into Multidisciplinary Institutions

University Grants Commission, UGC has released the draft guidelines for transforming Higher Education Institutions, HEIs into Multidisciplinary Institutions enabling HEIs to cover a wide range of subjects with various departments. UGC has drafted these guidelines considering the recommendation of National Education Policy, NEP 2020 that states to establish large multidisciplinary HEIs in or near every district by 2030.

Further, NEP 2020 for colleges also say that by 2035 all affiliated colleges should become degree-awarding multidisciplinary autonomous institutions. This will enable colleges to have more diversified subjects and provide more opportunities and segments towards online education. The Union government and authorities are working at pace to implement more Online Distance LearningODL format of studies.

These guidelines have been formulated with a motive to benefit both students and colleges, one of the key factors that will help students is that if any students enroll in a college to complete the first degree, they can complete the second degree at the partnering institution without going through the admission process again.

Further, The multidisciplinary HEIs may also seek collaboration in case they are willing to expand further by adding more programs. For example, a B.Ed. course, integrated with a BA gives the Integrated Teacher Education Program (ITEP), and combination of BA-B.Ed

What is a Multidisciplinary Institution?

UGC in its draft guidelines says to convert all colleges into degree-awarding multidisciplinary autonomous institutions. It means the colleges will have more strengthened infrastructure and new age subject combinations for various courses. Explaining this, UGC in its draft mentions, “A multidisciplinary institution should not only have different departments, but also imaginative and flexible curricular structures to enable creative combinations of disciplines for study. Innovative programs of a multi- and interdisciplinary nature help widen learners’ thinking and learning capability and train them to address emerging challenges. An approach to help students to follow their passion is, therefore, a key recommendation towards innovative and flexible education.”

To set up educational institutions as multidisciplinary HEIs, UGC has formulated three approaches: academic collaboration between institutions, merger of single-stream institutions with other multidisciplinary institutions, and strengthening of institutions by adding departments in subjects.