NEP 2020: ‘Cluster university model is an American concept’

By AK Das

Firstly, the cluster university should have absolute autonomy and control over all the institutes and secondly, the institutions should be located close to each other, be in the same geographical region. Because the concept behind a cluster university is resource sharing, student sharing, laboratory sharing, research sharing. The problem that has happened in India in different cluster university models is that the members of the cluster are located far from each other and are under different controlling authorities. It is not just about Khallikote Cluster University, but in clusters elsewhere as well. This concept is not very successful.

The cluster university model is an American concept. When the Government of India wanted to implement it here, they could not provide a model or structure or regulations to run it.

Now, the NEP 2020 [National Education Policy] also talks about creating cluster universities by bringing together different institutions in the same region and having multi-disciplinary teaching in all universities.

Khallikote college was a well-developed college and had good laboratories which other colleges part of the cluster could have utilised. The problem was that the ministry of human resource development (now ministry of education) had no guidelines in place for functioning of the cluster university and sharing of resources between colleges that were part of the cluster.

AK Das is Vice Chairman of Odisha Higher Education Council

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