State plans 21 model institutions

It aims at providing quality education to economically, socially backward students

    The proposal is aimed at  providing quality education to economically and socially marginalised students .

“Out of 349 Government colleges, which are functioning in this state of Karnataka, 21 Government degree colleges will be brought under model college project,” the proposal titled “Model Colleges coming under the economically backward districts in Karnataka” said.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has already approved the project in principle on the basis of a draft proposal.

The final proposal was recently submitted to the commission. The entire exercise will be completed during the 11th Plan period.

Backward districts
The proposal by the Department of Collegiate Education said the 21 government colleges to be covered under the project would be distributed in 21 economically backward districts of the State, and they would come under the jurisdiction of seven universities.
The maximum number of colleges will be under Karnataka University (six), followed by Gulbarga University (four), Mysore and Mangalore universities (three each), Kuvempu and Bangalore universities (two each) and Tumkur University (one).

The districts covered under the project are Chamrajnagar, Koppal, Haveri, Mandya, Bellary, Kolar, Bangalore (Rural), Chikmagalur, Hassan, Udupi, Bagalokote, Raichur, Belgaum, Uttara Kannada, Kodagu, Tumkur, Chitradurga, Gadag, Dakshina Kannada, Gulbarga and Bijapur.

The cost of upgrading/setting up infrastructure in each model college will be around Rs 9 crore.

A Central government grant of Rs 189 crore will be utilised for the purpose.
The proposal said the project is not only aimed at helping SC/ST students acquire additional qualifications and skills along with a degree at no additional cost but also arresting the decline of interest among plus-two students to take up degree courses.
It also aims at “adoption of technology in education to help semi-urban and rural college students with state-of-the-art technology and bridging the gap in the availability of quality teaching resources.”

Accordingly, every model college will have a computer centre with internet and intranet facilities.

The lab equipment will cost at least Rs 20 lakh (for basic courses) and Rs 10 lakh (for innovative courses).

And the language (communication) lab will have at least 20 computer work stations with the required software and trained personnel. Referring to an ideal teacher-student ratio of 1:20, the academic strength would be 50 for a multi-faculty co-education college, and for a similar women’s college it would be at least 25.

Hostel facilities will be available to at least 75 per cent of the students, in the ratio of 40:60 for boys and girls and to 50 per cent of the faculty members and staff.
The proposal said: “These model colleges will be constituent colleges of the universities concerned, so that they are endowed with accelerated growth potential to become autonomous colleges within a stipulated time as decided by the UGC.”

*Colleges in backward districts to be considered for the project
*The project will be completed during the 11th Plan period
*Model colleges to be distributed in economically backward districts
*Karnataka University to have maximum number of model colleges
*Every college to have computer centre with internet and intranet facilities