No change in grant of college participating in cluster university: Chandrakant Patil

Maharashtra minister Chandrakant Patil said that when participating in a cluster university, the grant of a college will not decrease and there will be no change in its academic and financial discipline

Pune: Maharashtra higher education minister, Chandrakant Patil, on Thursday said that when participating in a cluster university, the grant of a college will not decrease and there will be no change in its academic and financial discipline. Patil appealed to educational institutions to participate in cluster universities. The minister was speaking at a one-day, state-level workshop organised under his chairmanship by the department of higher and technical education at Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai.

Maharashtra minister Chandrakant Patil said that when participating in a cluster university, the grant of a college will not decrease and there will be no change in its academic and financial discipline. (HT FILE)

Also present at the one-day workshop were principal secretary of the state higher education department, Vikas Chandra Rastogi; deputy secretary, Ajit Baviskar; director of technical education, Vinod Mohitkar; director of higher education, Shailendra Deolankar and several other dignitaries.

“While implementing the new education policy (NEP), many changes are taking place in the education sector. Cluster university is one such innovative initiative which will be instrumental in taking higher education to the grassroots and providing academic initiatives to students,” Patil said at the workshop.

“It also aims to strengthen the concept of coherence, precision, interdisciplinary curriculum, quality and skill development in higher education by bringing together various types of human and infrastructural resources through the integration of colleges, universities and research institutes in the city/area via cluster universities and using these resources effectively,” Patil said.

Rastogi said, “The state government has approved guidelines for setting up cluster universities for educational institutions in the state. This will reduce the administrative burden on the state-run universities, and create a stronger network of educational institutions and provide more opportunities to students.”

While introducing the programme, Deolankar said, “The management and educational quality of many autonomous educational institutions in the state is good. Academically high-performing colleges, institutions with requisite infrastructure, trained faculty as well as the ability to coordinate in terms of cluster university are preferred for cluster university. For this, a state-level conference was organised for a detailed discussion and brainstorming.”