[ What's The Missing Block In Building Institutes Of Excellence? ]

A article in Times of India by Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar.

There are all kinds of regulators,from banking to energy to telecommunications.Education is no oddity. In India,there are numerous higher education regulators.University Grants Commission (UGC) is the largest regulator whose policies impact a significant share of the higher education student population.

There are enormous societal expectations from the education regulators in India due to the scale and complexity of challenges that need to be addressed in higher aducation. These include providing learning outcomes-based education and individualsed learning on a mass scale. With the national education policy 2020 being executed nationwide, the need to achive regulatory excellence has become even more important to achive the above objectives.

Every country wants to build higher education institutes of excellence by investing in academic and research excellence. The logic is straightforword. If a country aims at becomeing self-reliant,it needs a knowledgeable and skilled workforce, which only institution's of excellence can prepare.Such institutions should focus on delivering affordable quality education relevent and national needs.They also must have governance structures that stimulate research excellence,the freedom to purse different disciplines, encouaragement question the status quo, an ecosystem that nurtures diversity.

Unfortunately,multiple agency's seek to regulate institutes of higher education in India.However,building institutes of excelence is impossible if numerous regulators work at cross purposes,in silos with no consultative mechanisma but overlaping functions. This operational disconnectamoung different regulators is a major challenge

Due to the absence of consultation and coordination amoung various regulators,education cannot promote holistic and multi-disciplinary educatin to realise better learning outcomes and research output,a requirement for preparing well-rounded learners with 21st century skills and diverse experiences their employability.

All degree awarding institutions are expected to be guided by HECI by holistically hormonizing multiple higher education disciplines, For example,the recent unveling of a national credit framework is a major intiative in hormonizing school education,higher education and skill or vocational education,and skill education. The use of Academic Bank of credits by all educational institutions will provide increased mobility for students to move from one institutions to another or migrate from one discipline to another.

Given the rapid changes India's higher education will undergo,HECI, which will be setablished through an act of parliament,must set it's priorities right and bring out regulations based on evidence based inputs,HECI, should refrain from bringing out regulations in areas requiring no regulations.As a regulator,it should asses how the regulations will impact the functioning of higher education institutes and wherther the change aim to obtain is optimal.

Input from the stake holders (students,faculty members,non-teaching staff, institutional heads,industry and general public) can be benificial when formulating the regulations. A regulator should therefore have an open mind to suggestions and feed back and formulate the regulations transperently participatory procedures.

While regulations of higher education is vital and is for the public good, regulator should practice regulatory self restrient and intervene only when there is evidence for intervention. It should not succumb to the temtation of micro managing the affars of higher education institutes just because the the law gives the authority.

This means that the regulator should foresee the expected role a regulation will play in improving the quality of education and the constrains it could bring. Therefore the regulatory authority in the juridiction should give due consideration to other regulations broughtby another regulatory authoritywhile preparing its regulations. We need to create an interconnected web.

Interactions between players in the wider net work,sharing of regulations and their impact,and more importantly,working together to co-create regulations will go a long way in making the functioning of educational institutions more oiled. There is much to learn from each others regulatory experiences,for instance how regulatory complience can be made more uncomplicated using dugital technology during cricis such as the covid pandemic.These key aspects are critical.These key aspects are critical for advancing of the need for HECL.

By harnessing the potential of collaborative efforts, HECL can usher in a contemporory streamlined regulatory approch involving all revlevent regulatory bodies and stake holders.As a unified and hormonized regulator, HECL can play a transformative role in making India's initiative to build institutes of excellence.