UGC mandates Universities, Colleges to ensure 90% faculty posts filled, NAAC accreditation of 2.5 by 2022

NEW DELHI, JUNE 5: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked all the higher education institutions to ensure that the faculty shortage is not more than 10 percent as against the sanctioned positions. The regulatory body has also asked institutions to facilitate their students in getting job opportunities. The Commission has approved the ‘Quality Mandate’ for improving the quality of higher education with objectives to be achieved by 2022.

The UGC in its recent meeting has approved the objectives set for improving the quality in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). To improve the quality of graduates and provide employment opportunities the HEIs have been asked to improve the graduate outcomes for the students, so that at least 50% of them secure access to employment/self-employment or engage themselves in pursuit of higher education.

The lack of industry-academia linkage has been a major area of concern in the Indian education system. To promote linkage of the students with the society and industry, the Mandate asks universities to ensure at least 2/3rd of the students engage in socially productive activities during their period of study in the institutions.

To address one of the major lacuna in higher education, faculty shortage, it asked universities and colleges to ensure that teacher vacancies at any point in time does not exceed 10% of the sanctioned strength. The UGC has also asked the institutions to keep their faculty abreast of  latest and emerging trends in their respective domains of knowledge, and the pedagogies that translate their knowledge to the students.

The institutions have also been asked to get themselves accredited by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) with a minimum score of 2.5 by 2022. It also mandates for mentoring of non-accredited institutions, so that every institution can get accreditation by 2022.

The institutions have also been asked to organize induction training for all new teachers, and annual refresher training for all teachers and mandatory leadership/management training for all educational administrators.