Bihar government has given its nod for a big increase of nearly 20000 seats in the colleges of four universities at the undergraduate level.
Education minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary said the government had granted approval to proposals from various universities in the interest of students and in view of the need to expand higher education.
“Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been consistently emphasising the need to increase the gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education in the state and the decision is significant in this regard. This will ensure that the students don’t have to wander due to lack of seats in colleges,” the minister said.
In the field of higher education, the GER in Bihar continues to be low at barely around 15%, while it was 27.4 at the national level in 2017-18, according to the All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE). The present enrollment also includes those studying through distance mode. Tamil Nadu recorded 49% GER. Under the new education policy, the target is to take GER to 50% nationally by 2035, for which Bihar will have to make a lot of efforts.
Besides. Bihar grapples with serious shortage of teachers in its higher education institutions. They are at present functioning at around 50% of the sanctioned strength due to growing vacancies. The universities are somehow managing with ad hoc appointments. Though Bihar state university service commission has started the appointment process, it may take a long time to complete.
{{/usCountry}}Besides. Bihar grapples with serious shortage of teachers in its higher education institutions. They are at present functioning at around 50% of the sanctioned strength due to growing vacancies. The universities are somehow managing with ad hoc appointments. Though Bihar state university service commission has started the appointment process, it may take a long time to complete.
{{/usCountry}}“With increase in seats, the sanctioned strength of teachers, which has remained unchanged for decades, will also need to be increased to maintain the teacher-student ratio and the government should think in that regard. The appointed process should also be speeded up, as by the time new batch of teachers join, greater number retire,” said KB Sinha, working president of the federation of university teachers' association of Bihar (FUTAB).
> The maximum increase of 10200 seats has been done in the 41 colleges under the Lalit Narayan Mithila University (Darbhanga), which is spread across Darbhanga, Madhubani and Samastipur, followed by 4736 seats in 19 colleges of JP University (Chapra) and 3388 seats in 11 colleges of TM Bhagalpur University.
In the four colleges of Patna University, 505 seats have been increased, with the maximum increase of 180 seats in Patna College, 260 seats in Patna Women’s college and 60 seats in Patna Science College. College of Art ans Craft in Patna has also got 15 additional seats.
In 2010-11, the government had decided to increase the number of seats in the colleges after the plan to delink intermediate from colleges in a phased manner in keeping with the national policy. However, except Patna University in 2007, none of the universities could delink intermediate from colleges and later the government developed cold feet.
At present the number of students passing the higher secondary examination for admission in degree colleges has increased manifold since 2005-06. In 2021, around 13.65-students had registered for the plus two board exams from the state board, with the number of girls higher than boys. The number is likely to further go up, requiring more seats.