New Education Policy 2020 for Universities — a Vision for Excellence

The National Education Policy (NEP) is a thought-provoking document that has sought to address the many issues confronting the education sector currently. Few would disagree that our higher education institutions need revamping on an emergent basis. The NEP, while acknowledging the lacunae in our HEIs, has set for itself a lofty ideal that is both modern and holistic to create a 21st-century ecosystem for higher education in India:

“It (higher education) must enable an individual to study one or more specialized areas of interest at a deep level, and also develop character, ethical and Constitutional values, intellectual curiosity, scientific temper, creativity, the spirit of service, and 21st-century capabilities across a range of disciplines including sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, languages, as well as professional, technical, and vocational subjects.”

Salient features of the new national education policy 2020 for higher education include:

• Setting up of large, multidisciplinary Universities and Colleges and undergraduate education.
• Encouraging faculty and institutional autonomy
• A complete revamping of curriculums, pedagogy, assessment, and student support
• Reaffirming integrity in HEIs through merit-based appointments
• Establishment of a National Research Foundation to encourage and fund outstanding research
• Governance of HEIs by qualified autonomous boards
• A single regulator for higher education
• Increased access, equity, and inclusion through greater opportunities, scholarships, online education, and open distance learning (ODL) and infrastructure and learning materials for the disabled.

In concrete terms, this is how the policy will unfold:

• Implementation of a four-year undergraduate program. This program will be multi-disciplinary and will offer multiple entries and exit points with appropriate certifications.
• The M.Phil program shall be discontinued.
• An Academic Bank of Credit shall be established which would digitally store the academic credits earned from various recognized HEIs so that the degrees from an HEI can be awarded taking into account credits earned. Credits can be transferred to another university so he will not need to start afresh in case he moves to another HEI.
• An autonomous umbrella body — the “Higher Education Commission of India” (HECI) will be set up to oversee the regulation of higher education in all fields except medicine and legal education.
• High performing Indian universities will be encouraged to set up campuses in other countries, and similarly, selected universities e.g., those from among the top 100 universities in the world will be facilitated to operate in India.

With regard to technology, NEP recognizes the need to improve on the current scenario and adopt a more innovative approach to online education. It intends to set up the National Educational Technology Forum (NETF) as a platform for the free exchange of ideas on the use of technology in education. Its plans for the integration of technology in education include:

• Technological interventions aimed at enhancing the teaching-learning experience, improving and streamlining assessments, administration, attendance, assessments, etc. Campus automation should play a major role here.
• Higher Education Institutions will be roped in to conduct research on disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and also to create instructional material and online courses in cutting-edge domains.
• Universities will work towards offering Ph.D. and Masters programs in core areas such as Machine Learning, Multidisciplinary fields such as AI+X, and areas such as agriculture and law.
• Creating a robust digital infrastructure. University ERPs would need to be further developed to meet the aim of the NEP, i.e. investing in the “creation of an open, interoperable, evolvable, public digital infrastructure in the education sector that can be used by multiple platforms and point solutions, to solve for India’s scale, diversity, complexity and device penetration”.
• Reducing and then eliminating the digital divide remains a predominant goal of the NEP. The issue of inequity in digital education and in the availability of appropriate digital devices needs to be addressed. The NEP recognizes and seeks to actively promote and work towards equity in online learning.
• Finally, blended models of learning will be encouraged, so that face-to-face in-person teaching-learning and online learning complement each other and students may have the best of both worlds.

Particularly exciting is the decision to seek regular, authentic inputs and data from educational technology innovators and practitioners and to then analyze the data by engaging researchers from diverse sectors. The NETF will have as one of its functions to “build intellectual and institutional capacities in educational technology”. One can hope to see University Management Systems take the centre stage with more focus on the elimination of repetitive, mundane activities and the development of smarter e-learning modules and content.

The NEP seems intent on revolutionizing the education landscape in India. In its introduction, it states:

The gap between the current state of learning outcomes and what is required must be bridged through undertaking major reforms that bring the highest quality, equity, and integrity into the system, from early childhood care and education through higher education.

With determination and tenacity, this gap will surely be bridged.