State to roll out NEP-based courses at 87 autonomous colleges from new session

From the coming academic year, the state government will introduce undergraduate courses based on the Centre’s National Education Policy (NEP) at 87 autonomous colleges. Additionally, the government has planned to roll out new courses at nearly 450 institutions, including non-agricultural universities, offering postgraduate programmes.

A steering committee has been set up and based on its recommendations, a final plan will be prepared to implement the NEP 2020 in all universities and affiliated colleges from the next session (2024-25), minister of higher and technical education Chandrakant Patil said.

“The policy aims to bring about changes in the Indian education system by focusing on curriculum, intellectual development, study structure, branch specialisation, opportunities, equality, inclusiveness, educational quality, and innovative research. This year, the implementation of the NEP will commence at all non-agricultural universities, autonomous colleges, and educational institutions for the programmes such as BA, B.Com, B.Sc, MA, M.Com, M.Sc, and other conventional courses outlined in the government decision of April 20, 2023,” Patil said at a press conference on Friday after chairing a meeting of the panel members and all vice-chancellors at Sahyadri guest house.

Patil said to ensure its full implementation from 2024-25, the universities are required to analyse potential challenges and propose solutions by September 30 and the final plan will be prepared by December 31.

“Extensive efforts have been made over the past year to revise the curriculum for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in line with the NEP. The steering committee, which has been actively engaged for the last six months, has collaborated with the vice-chancellors and other relevant bodies of the universities to develop the revised syllabi,” Patil added.

Meanwhile, teachers’ associations have demanded postponement of the NEP’s implementation.

Professor Kushal M Mude, national convener, All India NET and SET Teachers Organisation, said the implementation should be applied uniformly to all higher education institutions adhering to UGC guidelines.

“Currently, no state in our country has partially implemented the NEP 2020, such as autonomous colleges this year and non-autonomous colleges next year. However, students have not yet received the necessary subject materials and syllabus. Therefore, it raises concerns as to why the government is rushing with this decision. Such a hasty implementation may lead to chaos,” he said.

Explaining about the syllabus, professor Ramesh Zade, president, National Forum for Quality Education, said, “Considering that the syllabus of autonomous and non-autonomous colleges shares about 80% similarity, we kindly request the honorable minister to implement the NEP from 2024-25 at all institutions. This approach would allow synchronisation of courses between autonomous and non-autonomous colleges.”

The principal from Vile Parle-based college said, “There is no awareness among students. University of Mumbai has no preparedness to implement the NEP whereas Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University has issued its circular in this regard. So, there’s no uniformity either.”