Gujarat: 12 colleges identified to be converted into universities

One college each in these 12 districts too have been identified which are capable of being run as a university. These include both technical and non-technical as well as government and grant-in-aid colleges. Out of these 12, nine are grant in aid, three are government and two womens’ colleges.

“This is one of the recommendations by National Education Policy. Apart from the colleges, we are also looking at the capabilities of the district to sustain a university. Though this would be developed over time, initial process has commenced,” said Principal Secretary, Education, Anju Sharma.

Also, according to the provisions of the NEP, each taluka need to have a college. For this, the education department has identified 18 out of total 251 talukas that do not have a single college. These include two from Anand district — Tarapur and Amreth —and two from Tapi-Kukarmunda and Dolvan talukas. Ahmedabad’s Dholera taluka, too, does not have a college.

The other reforms listed in the NEP 2020 that has been categorised by the state education department under “immediate action” are identification of various bachelor courses and programmes to be run as four year, three year or one year courses, identification of various master courses and programmes to be run as two year or one year programmes, online classes in higher education, evening classes to be conducted by higher education institutes, appointment of institutional mentors and establishment of board of governors in higher education institutes for governance and monitoring system.