Fifty Years of Higher Education in India


Book Description

`A very useful reader, providing an excellent and authentic perspective on higher education and UGC in India' - Educational Review The University Grants Commission (UGC) was established by an Act of Parliament at the end of 1953. Its charter was to regulate and control all tertiary level institutions in the country and to determine standards of higher and professional education. From the time the UGC was set up, there has been an exponential growth in the number of higher academic institutions which today employ more than 400,000 teachers with a student body in excess of 9 million. Recent years have also witnessed the mushrooming of private institutions which are largely beyond the remit of the UGC. The result is a chaotic situation where institutions are free to do what they want with little concern for students. This is the first book length study of the functioning of the UGC and, indirectly, of fifty years of higher education in India. Written by an eminent educationist, it critically examines the way in which the UGC has performed since its inception and determines the reasons for its failure. Dr Amrik Singh maintains that the powers given to the UGC are severely limited and that, combined with poor internal management, this has made it a largely ineffective body. The author offers a number of practical solutions which, if implemented, could go a long way towards ameliorating the problems facing the UGC today. These include: ̈ Amending the UGC Act to grant it more statutory and disciplinary powers. ̈ Adequate financial and administrative support from the Ministry of Human Resource Development. ̈ Expanding the UGC's role of accreditation. ̈ Strengthening the educational structure at the state level. ̈ Designing new modes of testing in universities and colleges. ̈ Encouraging teachers to take a greater leadership role. ̈ Developing mechanisms for student assessment of teachers. This book is neither a scholarly work nor an historical account of the UGC. Rather, it is a critical assessment of an institution whose role is central to the field of higher education in India. Timely and topical it will be of immense interest to educationists and policy makers in the field of higher education, as also to the general reader.




Fifty Years of India's Freedom


Book Description

Essays by scholars on various topics related to India; brought out on the anniversary of India celebrating its 50th year of independence.




Indian Books in Print


Book Description




Geographers


Book Description

Geographers is an annual collection of studies on individuals who have made major contributions to the development of geography and geographical thought. Subjects are drawn from all periods and from all parts of the world, and include famous names as well as those less well known, including explorers, independent thinkers and scholars. Each paper describes the geographer's education, life and work and discusses their influence and spread of academic ideas. Each study includes a select bibliography and a brief chronology. The work includes a general index, and a cumulative index of geographers listed in volumes published to date. Published under the auspices of the International Geographical Union.