UGC drafts guidelines for medical courses at IITs; Gets support from HEIs

UGC had drafted guidelines for transforming higher education institutions into multi-disciplinary institutions and reportedly got support from Higher education institutions (HEIs).

University Grants Commission (UGC) had released the drafted guidelines on Saturday to transform the higher education institutions into multi-disciplinary institutions. The guidelines were put up for public feedback latest by March 20. As per reports, Higher education institutions (HEIs) have backed the UGC draft guidelines.

The UGC guidelines on multidisciplinary education is to boost research and help produce professionals with knowledge of multiple disciplines. The idea is to create doctors and engineers who are aware of engineering technology, medical education and even social sciences.

The guidelines are reportedly being welcomed by various stakeholders including teachers, students, researchers and those involved in related fields, as reported by Business Standard.

The objectives of multidisciplinary HEIs 

• The goal is to transform the single-stream institutions into multidisciplinary HEIs, that is, large universities, and autonomous degree-awarding HEIs.
• Strengthen institutional infrastructure necessary for multidisciplinary education and research.

The UGC draft reads, "HEIs in India are opening their portals for students to experience multidisciplinary education and get a chance to take courses from other disciplines. The blend of core subjects and interdisciplinary topics will help students to shape their career options. To offer multidisciplinary programmes successfully, HEIs are expected to have student-induction programmes to apprise students of various career opportunities; register in the Academic Bank of Credit (ABC); and adopt SWAYAM courses, in addition to other collaboration with other HEIs, to offer the programmes with a strong interdisciplinary flavour."

"Internationally, the culture of establishing and sustaining a multidisciplinary university is increasing fast, thereby maximizing productivity with enhanced focus towards research and development, innovation, and incubation. It is therefore, pertinent for the higher educational system (HES) to phase out stand-alone, fragmented and domain-specific HEIs and create HEI clusters and multidisciplinary HEIs instead. Such institutions will impart education, which will turn out individuals who have strong values and skill sets," added the draft.

Read more:

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