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 Indian Agriculture


Book Description

Contributed papers presented at the conference organized by Dept. of Geography, Aligarh Muslim University.




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.




50 Years Of Science In Singapore


Book Description

As part of the commemorative book series on Singapore's 50 years of nation-building, this important compendium traces the history and development of the various sectors of Singapore science in the last 50 years or so. The book covers the government agencies responsible for science funding and research policy, the academic institutions and departments who have been in the forefront of the development of the nation's scientific manpower and research, the research centres and institutes which have been breaking new ground in both basic and applied science research, science museums and education, and the academic and professional institutions which the scientific community has set up to enable Singapore scientists to serve the nation more effectively.Each article is chronicled by eminent authors who have played important roles and made significant contributions in shaping today's achievement of science in Singapore.Professionals, academics, students and the general public will find this volume a useful reference material and an inspirational easy read.




Indian Books in Print


Book Description