• Moving towards a higher educational system consisting of large, multidisciplinary universities and colleges, with at least one in or near every district, and with more HEIs across India that offer medium of instruction or programmes in local/Indian languages.
• Moving towards a more multidisciplinary undergraduate education
• Moving towards faculty and institutional autonomy
• Revamping curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and student support for enhanced student experiences
• Reaffirming the integrity of faculty and institutional leadership positions through merit appointments and career progression based on teaching, research, and service
• Establishment of a National Research Foundation to fund outstanding peer-reviewed research and to actively seed research in universities and colleges
• Governance of HEIs by high qualified independent boards having academic and administrative autonomy
• “Light but tight” regulation by a single regulator for higher education
• Increased access, equity, and inclusion through a range of measures, including greater opportunities for outstanding public education
• Scholarships by private/philanthropic universities for disadvantaged and underprivileged students
• Online education, and Open Distance Learning (ODL)
• All infrastructure and learning materials accessible and available to learners with disabilities.

NEP 2020 stipulates that by 2040 all HEIs shall aim to become multidisciplinary institutions and shall aim to have larger student enrolments preferably in the thousands, for optimal use of infrastructure and resources, and for the creation of vibrant multidisciplinary communities. More HEIs shall be established and developed in underserved regions to ensure full access, equity, and inclusion. There shall, by 2030, be at least one large multi-disciplinary HEI in or near every district. Steps shall be taken towards developing high-quality higher education institutions both public and private that have medium of instruction in local/Indian languages or bilingually. Policy also provides that Single-stream HEIs will be phased out over time, and all will move towards becoming vibrant multidisciplinary institutions or parts of vibrant multidisciplinary HEI clusters, to enable and encourage high-quality multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary teaching and research across fields. Single-stream HEIs will add departments across different fields that would strengthen the single stream that they currently serve. Through the attainment of suitable accreditations, all HEIs will gradually move towards full autonomy - academic and administrative - to enable this vibrant culture.

According to NEP 2020, the four pillars of governance to ensure quality education are – regulations, accreditation, funding, and training. Each of these four pillars plays an instrumental role in ensuring that education being imparted is up to the universally accepted quality standards and norms:

• Regulations ensure compliance of educational institutes to the laws and standards
• Accreditation ensures that the institutes satisfy the requisite conditions and minimum standards of quality education
• Funding ensures that institutes have the means of day-to-day operations, providing newer and improved courses and curriculum, infrastructure, and facilities, hiring of qualified faculty, and focusing on research, development, and innovation.
• Training ensures that faculty, teachers, and administrators are up to date with the latest improvements in educational pedagogy, technology, subjects, and curriculum.

In order to achieve the vision of NEP 2020, following initiatives have been taken to improve the quality of education and to streamline governance which have shown promising results:

• Guidelines for Optimal Utilization of Resources by Higher Education Institutions was released on 11.01.2023 to guide institutes on the best ways of utilizing their resources through cooperation and collaboration in terms of sharing of academic and infrastructural resources leading to a more accessible and equitable distribution of educational resources to people.
• Redressal of Grievances of Students Regulation was released on 11.04.2023 to provide opportunities for redressal of certain grievances of students already enrolled in any institution, as well as those seeking admission to such institutions, and a mechanism thereto.
• Conferment of Autonomous Status Upon Colleges and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in Autonomous Colleges Regulations was released on 03.04.2023 to confer the status of autonomous college to colleges affiliated to universities, seeking autonomy. The regulations allow colleges that are over 10 years old and be accredited by either NAAC or NBA.
• Guidelines for Transforming Higher Education Institutions into Multidisciplinary Institutions was released in September 2022 to transform single-stream institutions into large multidisciplinary universities and autonomous degree-awarding HEIs and to strengthen institutional infrastructure necessary for multidisciplinary education and research.
• Innovative Pedagogical Approaches and Evaluation Reforms was released on 22.12.2022 to suggest innovative pedagogies and develop the linkage of Graduate Attributes, as listed in National Higher Education Qualifications Framework (NHEQF), with learning needs and pedagogical approaches to better serve towards achieving the NEP 2020 vision.
• At present around 436 Universities and 9306 HEIs are accredited.
• The participation of Universities and HEIs have considerably increased in NIRF 2023 and the total applications for ranking in various categories have increased to 8686.
• Ranking of Indian HEIs at global stage has been on the rise since last 9 years and around 45 Indian HEIs/ Universities ranked in QS 2024 out of which 11 Indian Universities / HEIs featured in top 500. Also 44 courses, in their respective subject categories, have been ranked among the Global top 100 in QS Rankings 2023.

It is envisioned that to improve quality of higher education, with a target of increasing the accreditation rate from 20% to 80% of the HEIs by 2030 and followed by gradual shift to binary accreditation by 2047.

1.1 Expected Outcomes of the Session

The Session would provide a forum where in the Institutions and stakeholders can collaborate to foster and formulate action plans for improving the quality of education being imparted and to streamline their governance strategies:

• Strategy to be adopted to enhance quality of the higher education and access to the same
• Guidance for institutes to transform themselves into multidisciplinary educational institutes through collaborations
• Leveraging SWAYAM courses to make education more accessible and increase the variety of courses available to learners
• Moving towards institutional autonomy and creating a strong leadership team in the institutes.
• Improved understanding of the NAAC and NBA accreditation process and the eligibility criteria for institutes
• Improved understanding and roadmap for improvement of the ranking of institutes
• Guidance for foreign universities regarding the requirements for opening campuses in India

1.2 Roadmap for the Institutes

Some of the steps that can be taken by institutes to improve the quality of education imparted and to streamline governance are:

• All institutes must be encouraged to set up internal quality assurance cells (IQAC) to monitor all quality assurance activities such as getting accredited and participating in national and international rankings.
• Institutes should be given requisite guidance to get themselves accredited by the National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) to ensure that the minimum education quality standards are adhered to. Funding incentives may be attached to accreditation grades to encourage institutes to get accredited and improve their existing accreditation grades.
• All technical institutes should be encouraged to accredit their programme offerings by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) to ensure that the technical programmes in India are in line with the industrial standards and the requirements of the technical industries.
• A light but tight regulatory framework should be adopted by reducing the compliance burden on the institutes through lesser paperwork, allowing self-disclosures, and reducing processing fees.
• Guidance should be provided to institutes to help them formulate their institutional development plans (IDP) to better guide the administration of their institutes.
• Proliferating the use of digital enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) such as the indigenously developed SAMARTH ERP system for effective and easy administration and governance of institutes.
• Faculty development programmes and trainings should be organised on a regular basis to enable professors, teaching assistants, scholars, and administrators to stay updated with the latest pedagogical trends, changes in syllabus, and constantly evolving educational technology.