Kalyan college turns mentor for eight institutes

Thousands of college students in the twin city of Kalyan-Dombivli will get better quality education.

Thousands of college students in the twin city of Kalyan-Dombivli will get better quality education.

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Eight educational institutes will have a mentor to help them improve the quality of education.

BK Birla College in Kalyan was selected by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to mentor eight colleges in its vicinity in October. The colleges selected as mentees are from Kalyan, Dombivli and Bhiwandi — either they have no accreditation or funds infrastructure for their students.

Around 50,000 students study in areas of Kalyan, Dombivli and Bhiwandi. The commission has selected a wide range of colleges, including night colleges, women’s colleges, management and Information Technology (IT) institutes to be mentored.

An official from UGC said, “There are many institutes in Vajreshwari and Bhiwandi which see a lot of students from rural areas. Some management and IT institutes are popular. However, these institutes are not accredited due to some shortcomings. We had selected eight such institutes for the mentoring programme that will be guided by Birla College. The session will focus on norms to be fulfilled to get an accreditation,” added the officer.

The training session will include adopting new innovative education practices and reforms.

The official added, “The student population in Kalyan Dombivli and Bhiwandi has increased in the past decade. The quality of education imparted also should improve. Most students look for better institutes in Mumbai or other Metro cities. They waste time and money in travelling to far-off colleges. The programme aims at providing the same facilities near their homes.”

He added that the commission had earlier chosen five colleges, however, with the good feedback the number was increased to eight. The number will further increase based on the demand.

The official said, “The accreditation will help the colleges to get more funds to add more courses. Also the accreditation will pave way for the colleges to get autonomy, like Birla College already has. Birla College is accredited regularly and is providing quality education to students of these suburbs. So, we chose the college to mentor other institutes.”

Naresh Chandra, director of Birla College said the programme will help their college too, as it will be a learning experience.

“Most colleges are unaided and hence we have conducted training sessions to help them understand the functioning. One of the sessions was kept for colleges to know about the best practices in each institute so that those can be adopted. We have assigned a staff member to interact with each college.”

Every institute focusses on various aspects of education, from night colleges to management institutes. When they all get together, they will share their ideas and pattern of functioning.

Some of these institutes cater to rural areas and reaching out to students in these regions will be beneficial for their progress.

“Getting accreditation will have a great impact on the credibility, image and facilities of a college. It will help the college to add infrastructure such as a well-equipped laboratory or library. It will also improve the teaching process, make it more interactive and research-based,” said Shahid Ansari, education activist, Kausa.