NEP can make India a ‘vishwaguru’, problem is implementation: Association of Indian Universities secretary

NEW DELHI: As Association of Indian Universities (AIU) completes 100 years, its secretary general Pankaj Mittal spoke to Careers360 about the body's journey, its plan to include autonomous colleges as members, and the challenges being faced in NEP implementation in terms of funding. Edited excerpts:

What has been AIU’s achievement in the past 100 years?

AIU is the largest university network in the world. Of the 1,300 universities in the country, 1,100 are members of AIU. The membership comprises central universities, institutes of national importance, state universities, private universities and deemed-to-be universities. If 1100 are becoming members of AIU despite being voluntary, they see value in it. We do a lot of work in the higher education sector. We engage with leadership, vice chancellors, teachers and students.

In the case of VC’s, we hold conferences where a lot of deliberations are held on policy issues. The many recommendations that emerge out of it are shared with the government of India as policy input.

In the case of teachers, after COVID and the introduction of artificial intelligence, it was felt that there were a lot of capacity building requirements, especially on the use of technology and AI for teaching, learning, research and governance. We have opened academic and administrative development centres in various universities where we are training teachers and administrators. With online education getting popular, we have to teach teachers how to create e-content, how to teach in an online ecosystem, student engagement and how to use AI for teaching assistants.

Students are our major stakeholders. We talk about holistic development of students. We do a lot of sports activities at national and international level. We conduct zonal competitions as well. Our students participated in the World University Games last year in China and they won 26 medals. This is an achievement.

Similarly we do a lot of cultural activities. Kapil Mishra of the Kapil Mishra show fame is a product of AIU youth programmes. To inculcate research acumen we do Anweshan, at zonal and national levels. Students submit their research papers and the best one is awarded prizes.

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We handhold the universities and do a lot of advocacy for them. We are the bridge between government and university.

We have a mandate of bringing equivalence with foreign degrees and internationalisation of education is our priority.

AIU had developed a network/consortium for internationalisation. What work has been done in this regard?

We have made an Indian network for internationalisation of higher education. It is a portal where Indian universities, teachers, students and anyone from foreign universities can enroll. We organise many activities through the portal in which internationalisation is promoted. We have 1,300 universities, not all are of the same level. They want to go for internationalisation but do not know how to develop the partnership. We handhold such universities and try to find partners for them to get international students on their campuses.

Right now there are 49,000 international students in India and about 10 lakh go abroad. There is a big gap. We are organising higher education summits in various countries, where our universities showcase their acumen and foreign students visit and even enroll through these programmes. We also take delegations to various countries to explore partnerships.

We hold seminars to train our faculty on internationalisation.

Why have Indian institutions not been able to attract foreign students?

One is the perception of the country. When incidents like the RG Kar Medical College rape case in Kolkata happen, people think India is not safe. Then there is funding of universities. For any collaboration funds will be required. Then comes infrastructure, especially in terms of international hostels. Food is also an issue.

There are visa-related issues as well. India doesn’t allow post-study work visas. But the government is slowly addressing this.

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What is AIU’s role in the implementation of NEP?

We devoted an entire year to implementation of NEP. We held conferences and brought out two reports. We have also published a book by various academicians on how to implement NEP. I have been personally visiting universities to guide them on implementation.

As you have been actively overseeing the implementation of NEP, what are the major challenges?

NEP is a very good policy with the potential of making India a ‘vishwaguru’. The problem is implementation.

The major challenge, especially being faced by state universities, is funding. The policy says there should be a lot of flexibility. Students should get to choose and study from various disciplines, for which a lot of teachers are required. To fulfill teachers' requirements and even for research, funding is required. Although the National Research Foundation has been established, there is still a need for research funding.

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The second pre-requisite is capacity building of teachers for implementation of NEP and the use of technology.

AIU’s other major mandate is to provide equivalence to various boards. Do you see any new boards coming to India?

Boards keep on coming. The New Zealand board is coming to India. The Australian board is there. International Baccalaureate, Cambridge are already here. It has been increasing over the years.

Last year CBSE had written to the education ministry stating that the IB board is not complying with Right to Education (RTE) norms and other provisions. Is AIU taking any action on it?

When we approve a new board we ensure that we have SOP for that. We ensure that there are conditions that say they will be abiding by the National Curriculum Framework, the NEP. Whatever new boards are being approved after this SOP, we ensure that all these policies and laws of the land are followed.

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What are AIU’s future plans?

We want to expand further. We are already a think tank on higher education, we want to promote it further. We want inroads not only into universities but also colleges. We have decided that autonomous colleges will also become our associate members because we want to handhold them as they become degree-awarding institutions as per NEP.

We want to establish connections between universities and the industry. We will be working on internationalisation of higher education as we want to promote India as a destination for affordable education. Affordability is key.

As an academic, what change do you want to see in India’s education system?

One of the policy initiatives listed in NEP is the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC). It allows students to earn credits from different universities and design their own degrees.

But ABC is not happening in letter and spirit as universities do not admit students in courses. Right now, admission is given in full programmes. Course-wise admissions are not there. I want that to change. As soon as course wise admission starts happening students will benefit from ABC.