Govt keen on independent body for higher edn

 The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry will go full steam to set up a National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER), HRD minister of state D Purandeshwari told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

“The need for an overarching independent body for overseeing the entire spectrum of higher education has been accepted by the government as one of its priorities,” she said.

Curricular reform should be the topmost priority of the National Commission for Higher Education and Research which will create a curricular framework based on the principles of mobility within a full range of curricular areas and integration of skills and academic depth, the minister said.

One of the first tasks of the National Commission for Higher Education and Research, which should also be subjected to external review once in every five years, will be to identify the best 1,500 colleges across India to upgrade them as universities and create clusters of other potentially good colleges to evolve as universities.