UGC launches its new website, 2 more portals for UTSAH, professor of practice

NEW DELHI: University Grants Commission chairman, Jagadesh Kumar launched the regulators’ brand new web portal for Undertaking Transformative Strategies and Actions in Higher Education (UTSAH) and professor of practice scheme on Tuesday. UTSAH is a platform for sharing progress made in the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

The website will enable the higher education regulator to effectively track and support the implementation of transformative reforms and strategic initiatives across universities in India.

Speaking at the launch, Kumar said: “UGC has redesigned its website to make it more dynamic where information has been characterised according to the needs of the stakeholders. The new website includes filters so that information can be easily sorted with keywords. The website also includes the contact information of bureau heads in case of queries”

The new website has information on key initiatives, regulations, circular notices and information about different types of universities, dashboards, and e-Governance portals of UGC initiatives and schemes. Kumar urged universities to visit the website regularly to register data on the implementation of NEP 2020 in their respective institutions.

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UTSAH, Professor of Practice

Along with the new UGC website, the chairman also unveiled a dedicated website for Undertaking Transformative Strategies and Actions in Higher Education or UTSAH portal. In addition, the Professor of Practice portal was also launched to facilitate universities in finding the right Professor of Practice and vice versa.

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With the use of UTSAH Portal, universities will be able to feed in information on the progress and efforts in key areas suggested by NEP 2020 like learner-centric education, digital learning, industry-institute collaboration, academic research, internationalisation, and the Indian Knowledge System. “The UTSAH Portal will serve as a comprehensive platform providing detailed information about UGC's initiatives for qualitative reforms in higher education” Kumar added.

The new website, Kumar said, has been developed in consultation with various Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), National Institutes of Technology (NIT), Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER).

Launching the web portal for professor of practice, the UGC chairman said: “Our country has a huge talent pool of experts from different fields who have worked on ground. If they can teach in colleges, students will be better prepared for the work environment outside the educational institutions.”

The UGC will write to industry experts and bodies like Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and other organisations to encourage registration on the portal to create a significant pool of industry experts.