1,499 new colleges to start in Maharashtra
There were 1,537 new proposed sites in the five-year destination plan from 2024 to 2029, out of which 1,499 places were qualified and the plan was approved, said Chandrakant Patil
Various locations for starting colleges and institutes for higher education have been identified in the non-agricultural university areas of the state, said officials.
The five-year comprehensive plan from 2024 to 2029 for the determination of the sites was approved in a meeting of the Maharashtra State Commission for Higher Education and Development (MAHED) on August 30 under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. According to the plan, 1,499 new colleges will start in the state this year.
The MAHED meeting was held at Sahyadri Guest House in the presence of state deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, state assembly opposition leader Vijay Wadettiwar, state higher and technical education minister Chandrakant Patil, medical education minister Hasan Mushrif, skill development and entrepreneurship minister Mangalprabhat Lodha along with additional chief secretary of finance department Nitin Karir, principal secretary higher and technical education department Vikas Rastogi, and other senior officials were also present.
“The Maharashtra Public Universities Act lays down the procedure for determining the locations of colleges and institutes for comprehensive and equitable distribution of higher education facilities in the state. The comprehensive Samyak Yojana prepared by the university every five years is approved by the MAHED. Accordingly, the annual plan proposal for 2024-25 and the comprehensive outline of the five-year plan from 2024 to 29 were discussed in the meeting in accordance with the Samyak Yojana. There were 1,537 new proposed sites in the five-year destination plan from 2024 to 2029, out of which 1,499 places were qualified and the plan was approved,” said Patil.
The five-year comprehensive plan from 2019 to 2024 included 1,059 sites and 3,193 new proposals were submitted to the commission by universities, out of which 2,819 site points were approved by ‘MAHED’, while 593 new colleges have been given final approval in the last five years.
Maharashtra has the highest number of universities and colleges in the country with ‘NAAC’ status, but ‘permanent unaided’ colleges also discussed the process of registration with the National Assessment and Accreditation Council to get National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) status.
In the meeting, Fadnavis directed to take action as per the provisions of the Act against those colleges that will not process the ‘NAAC’ rating.
