Maharashtra cluster universities may now comprise only self-financed colleges; government tables Bill

MUMBAI: Cluster universities in Maharashtra may no longer be required to have government-aided colleges as their constituent institutes. Cluster universities are smaller units carved out of state varsities and affiliating a small number of colleges.

The Maharashtra government on Monday, the first day of the state legislature’s winter session, tabled a Bill in the state legislative council to change a clause in the Maharashtra Public Universities Act (MPUA) 2016 that defined cluster universities as ones comprising government-run and aided colleges. The government had already introduced the amended language in an ordinance in October which doesn’t specify any category for the constituent colleges; it now seeks to amend the law.

The move is aimed at aligning the state’s cluster university framework with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines. It will also allow a wider set of the state’s colleges to become cluster universities.

Currently, Maharashtra has four cluster universities, of which three - Dr. Homi Bhabha State University, HSNC University in Mumbai and Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil University in Satara - were established in 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively, under the central government scheme, Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA).

Warana University in Kolhapur, approved by the state cabinet in August this year, is so far the only cluster university to be formed by virtue of the state’s own policy.

Also read NEP 2020: Why Odisha’s Khallikote Cluster University fell apart

NEP 2020, UGC’s cluster university policy

The NEP 2020 envisages transforming fragmented higher education institutions (HEIs) across the country into multidisciplinary universities and clusters. It aims for all HEIs to function as self-governing, degree-granting institutions or clusters to enable cross-disciplinary research and resource efficiency.

In its guidelines for ‘Transforming Higher Education Institutions into Multidisciplinary Institutions’, published in September 2022, UGC provides for existing government and private colleges to be clubbed together into unitary clusters, while still being affiliated to their parent universities. It also suggests merging together different institutes run by one management body or even multiple bodies.

Home to some of the largest state universities in the country - the University of Mumbai (MU) and Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) have close to 900 and 800 affiliated colleges, respectively - Maharashtra has been keen on dividing them into smaller units.

In order to ease administrative burden on these universities, the state, for the last few years, has been increasingly facilitating the creation of stand-alone, private and cluster universities, while pushing colleges to seek autonomy.

Maharashtra’s cluster university policy

In March 2022, the state legislature approved an amendment to MPUA 2016, making it easier for existing colleges to be transformed into cluster universities. In November 2023, the government issued detailed guidelines and procedures on the establishment and operation of such clusters.

The guidelines allow two to five institutes managed by a single trust or society within a particular district to come together in the form of a university. They stipulated that at least one of these institutions had to be a government-aided college. Among other conditions, the lead college of the proposed cluster is required to have more than 3.25 in the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) rating and 50 percent of courses should have been graded by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA).

The government also announced it would provide Rs 1 crore per year for the first five years of these new cluster universities to meet the salary expenditures of new administrative posts. It also promised to preserve existing aided posts and continued funding for them.

However, the programme has had limited success. Colleges remain wary of leaving their parent universities and some of the parameters were deemed restrictive. While in the first draft of the guidelines, the state had proposed considering only institutes that were within 15 km of each other for clusters, following suggestions from educational bodies, the final version was revised to allow colleges spread across an entire district to join one.

A key concern for some institutes is the process to select the vice chancellor for the cluster universities. Under the existing rules, much like state universities, the governor has been named the final authority in picking the institute’s head. The colleges believe that this might encroach upon their autonomy.

According to officials from the state higher and technical education department, they have received only a few proposals for clusters during the last one year. “Around 2-3 applications are in the advanced stage of scrutiny, while a few more are in the preliminary stage,” said Vikas Chandra Rastogi, principal secretary at the department.