TTHHEE MMAAHHAARRAASSHHTTRRAA PPUUBBLLIICC UUNNIIVVEERRSSIITTIIEESS AACCTT,, 22001111.. Pathway for Transforming Higher Education into a Socio-Economic Development Force THE MAHARASHTRA PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES ACT, 2011. Pathway for Transforming Higher Education Into a Socio-Economic Development Force Report of Committee No. 2 set up by the Ministry for Higher and Technical Education, Government of Maharashtra under the Chairmanship of Professor (Dr.) Arun Nigavekar November, 2011 1 e g a The Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2011. P Public Universities, inspite of the trend for privatization of education, are playing and would continue to play an important role in shaping the future of millions of youth in Maharashtra for decades to come. They need to be endowed with the enabling legal provisions that promote innovations in learning and understanding processes, cultivate a research and development culture and help students to imbibe appropriate knowledge, values and guiding principles relevant to the 21st century and leading to betterment in life and wealth generation. In addition, it should bring openness and flexibility in the teaching framework, that while enriching the basic foundations, which are the core identities of various disciplines, and linkages to human life and to Mother Nature, encourages a seamless approach in the subjects, the disciplines, the time frame and methods of learning and the way for judging the acquisition of knowledge-applications- development base offered in a particular degree program for the students. The clever and innovative use of technology in all aspects of educational institutions is a tool to liberate them from the shackles of the past and embrace the challenges of global opportunities. The real challenge is to create an enabling structure for good colleges to become autonomous and thereby “empower” them to shoulder the responsibility of becoming a part of the degree giving authority. Public universities, by their very nature, do depend on Governmental support, however, they have to be very prudent in the use of the tax payer’s money by adopting financial discipline. They have to be accountable to all the stakeholders in a transparent way. They should devise innovative strategy for augmenting their finances through optimal use of their academic, research & development and physical infrastructure. The Government, on its part, needs to adopt new and time-independent approach for funding public universities. This document presents a generic Act, which provides a basic framework for achieving the above mentioned objectives of the contemporary educational system, to manage academic, financial and administrative operations of ten public universities in the state of Maharashtra in an open, transparent and flexible manner. 2 e g a The Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2011. P INTRODUCTION The Department of Higher and Technical Education, Government of Maharashtra vide the G.R. No. Sankirn-2010/(106/10)/Univ-4 (Part-1, 2 & 3) appointed three independent Committees’, which were to work in tandem, with following tasks: 1. Committee No. 1: To suggest long term strategies for enhancement of the relevance and quality of higher and professional education so as to meet the challenges that are emerging in the 21st Century. 2. Committee No. 2: To work out a new Act for governance and management of Public Universities and 3. Committee No. 3: To suggest ways and means for managing of large affiliating universities like Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. This report, presented in three parts, is that of Committee No.2 and it has the following contents: OPENING STATEMENTS - (1) The Report Submission Statement by the Members of the Committee (2) Prologue by the Chairman of the Committee Part I – (A) Principles that formed the basis while working on the New Act (B) The matrix displaying conversion of “Principles” into operative recommendations. Part II - The Proposed New Act Part III - Annexure 1 - Model Formats for Budget, Annual Accounts and Audits Annexure 2 - New approach for funding Public Colleges and Universities and the creation of the Higher and Professional Education Finance Corporation (HIPEC) Annexure 3 - Names of Members of the Committee and Copy of Government of Maharashtra Resolution constituting the Second Committee 3 e g a The Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2011. P INDEX Page No. Introduction 3 Opening Statements 5 - 14 (1) The Report submission letter by the Members of the Committee. (2) Prologue by the Chairman of the Committee Part - I 15 – 49 (A) Principles that formed the basis while working on the New Act. (B) The matrix displaying conversion of “Principles” into operative recommendations. Part - II 50 – 268 The Proposed New Act Part - III 269 - 283 Annexure 1 - Model Formats for Budget, Annual Accounts and Audits Annexure 2 - A new approach for funding Public Colleges and Universities and the creation of the Higher and Professional Education Finance Corporation (HIPEC) Annexure 3 - Names of Members of the Committee and Copy of Government of Maharashtra GR constituting the Second Committee 4 e g a The Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2011. P O S PENING TATEMENTS (1) The Report Submission Statement by the Members of the Committee (2) Prologue by the Chairman of the Committee 5 e g a The Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2011. P Dear Honorable Rajesh Tope, It is with great pleasure that we submit the report on the formation of a new legal structure for governance of Public Universities in the State of Maharashtra. The task given to the Committee was quite complex, as it involved taking into consideration, interests and inter-linkages between several stakeholders, that are directly and indirectly connected with the university system. These stakeholders are students, teachers, parents, supporting and administrative staff, funding agencies, employers and society. It also involved the co-ordination with the other two Committees set up by the State; namely Committee Number 1, headed by Dr. Anil Kakodkar, with the task of evolving a long term approach and strategy to make higher and professional education more meaningful and that of quality, to meet the emerging challenges in the present century and Committee Number 3, chaired by Professor Ram Takwale, which was to look into the working of three major universities in the State i.e. Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur, to make them efficient through a process of bifurcation or otherwise. We have made best efforts to integrate and bring the recommendations and long term strategy suggestions of both the Committees at operative level. We also restricted ourselves to looking into, vigilantly and more in detail, the working and operations of ten major public universities that are situated at Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Amravati, Jalgaon, Nanded, and Solapur. We have, to the best of our capacity, experience and knowledge, put forward several innovative ideas to facilitate effective Governance of Public Universities, while retaining the flavor of democratic principles, open, efficient, accountable and professional by blending ICT technologies in administration and management. We also have provided an agile framework to address the academic challenges of the future. 6 e g a The Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2011. P The generic frame work for the Act that we recommend would be useful for the following ten general Public Universities: 1. The University of Mumbai at Mumbai 2. The University of Pune at Pune 3. The Shivaji University at Kolhapur 4. The Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University at Aurangabad 5. The Rashtra Sant Tukdoji Maharaj University at Nagpur 6. The Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women’s University at Mumbai 7. The Sant Gadge Baba University at Amravati 8. The North Maharashtra University at Jalgaon 9. The Swami Ramananda Teerth Marathwada University at Nanded and 10. The Solapur University at Solapur The Committee, for paucity of time, has not deliberated on the legal structure and the Act of the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU) at Nasik, Kavi Kalidas Sanskrit University at Nagpur and Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education Amendment Act 2002 (MSBTE). We have observed that most of the Public Universities in Maharashtra continue to operate a distance learning process for external students. Several well established conglomerations of Colleges have started ODL programs. In addition there are stand-alone private initiatives to run ODL programs. We are of the view that there is a need to create a legal framework for bringing such institutions under the umbrella of Open University. We also need to create a separate Act for private Open Distance Learning institutions. Skills Education is going to be very vital in future. The Government of India has established the National Skills Board and is investing very heavily to promote skills education through public and private institutions. There is need to revisit the present MSBTE Act in the light of these recent developments. The Committee is of the view that a new Committee, with appropriate representation from the various domains in which the above mentioned Universities work, be formed, to take up the task of making a new Act for YCMOU, Private Open University, Kavi Kalidas Sanskrit University and MSBTE. 7 e g a The Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2011. P There is an independent Act entitled The Maharashtra Education Courses (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2006 that addresses aspects related to courses run by private skills education providers. The Committee has subsumed the provisions of this Act, with appropriate changes without disturbing the spirit of the Act, into the new Act presented in this Report. The Committee was to look into the Maharashtra Prevention of Malpractices Act (MPM Act), 1982 that deals mainly with malpractices in the examination process. The new Act has enough provisos to look in to malpractices and enable to do fixation of responsibility on any individual and thus the MPM Act would automatically become applicable. The Committee is of the view that Maharashtra Education Institutions (Prohibition of Capitation Fee Act, 1987) adequately empowers the State to deal with the menace of capitation fees and should be retained as it is. The Committee is of the view that the present report be circulated to the Vice-Chancellors of all the concerned Universities and also be put on the website of the Ministry of Education, to seek the views of various stakeholders. We feel a period of six weeks should be given for receiving suggestions, from the date is it is uploaded on the website. Due publicity may also be given through print media. The Committee is of the view that these suggestions be carefully reviewed and may be included in the Act if it is found that they further strengthen, without disturbing the main framework and proactive reforms approach, as presented in the present Report, the principle of making the Act “open, transparent and flexible”. We place on record our sincere thanks to the Minister of Higher & Technical Education, Honorable Shri. Rajesh Tope, Former Secretary Shri. Mahesh Pathak, Shri. Sanjeev Kumar, Secretary, Higher & Technical Education, and Shri. Rajaram Jadhav, Joint Secretary, Higher & Technical Education. We thank the former Vice-Chancellor of S.N.D.T. Women’s University Dr. Ms. Chandra Krishnamurthy and the present Vice-Chancellor Dr. Ms. Vasudha Kamat for providing the facilities at S.N.D.T. Women’s University to hold the meetings of the Committee. We would specially like to thank the supporting staff at S.N.D.T. Women’s University for making our life comfortable during our deliberations. 8 e g a The Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2011. P 1. Principal Anirudh Jadhav 2. Dr. Manvendra S. Kachole 3. Principal Nandkumar Nikam 4. C. A. Prakash Page 5. Dr. Suhas Pednekar 6. Shri. Nitin Pujar 7. Dr. S. A. Suryawanshi 8. Dr. Ramkrishna S. Solunke 9. Dr. Ms. Madhu Madan Member Secretary 10. Dr. Arun Nigavekar Chairman To, HHHHHooooonnnnnooooorrrrraaaaabbbbbllllleeeee SSSSShhhhhrrrrriiiii..... RRRRRaaaaajjjjjeeeeessssshhhhh TTTTTooooopppppeeeee,,,,, Minister for Higher and Technical Education, Government of Maharashtra, Mumbai. 9 e g a The Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2011. P