Grade varsities to improve quality education in Maharashtra

The State government of Maharashtra is planning to set up a ranking system for its universities to improve the quality of education. The idea was discussed in the meeting of the joint board of vice-chancellors, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and governor K Sankaranarayanan on Tuesday when the VCs expressed their concern over the falling standard of education in the state. The states proposal to provide grades to the universities was backed by VCs.

The universities will be assessed on five points, including quality of teachers, infrastructure facilities on the campus and academic performance of students.

Maharashtra has 20 major universities but none of them is currently graded on performance. "We are severely lacking in innovation and the quality of education in our universities is poor, compared to international standards. One way of improving is to grade them on the basis of certain parameters. Going into the future, we don't want to churn out just students instead of a knowledgeable bunch of students," said a senior official.

At the meeting, it was also decided that more universities will be opened to train students on skilled jobs- that will help the industry meet manpower requirement— and to promote sports.

Apart from the academic proposal, it VCs were also instructed by governor to implement the incorporation of voluntary organ donation pledges on student's identity cards through their affiliated colleges from 2013-14.