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September 25, 2010

HRD to probe ICHR, ICSSR, ICPR, IIAS

Filed under: Enquiries — Tags: — ugcaicte @ 5:48 pm

The human resource development ministry is launching probes to review the performance and functioning of India’s four apex social science research bodies, at a time when they face questions over whether they are fulfilling their mandate. The Indian Council of Historical Research, Indian Council of Social Science Research, Indian Council of Philosophical Research and Indian Institute of Advanced Studies in Shimla will be scrutinised under the plan, government sources confirmed.

The reviews come even as the HRD ministry is locked in a legal battle against deemed universities which a ministry review last year found substandard and undeserving of the tag.

HRD ministry sources clarified that unlike the deemed university review which was aimed at cleaning up higher education, the review of the  apex research councils is aimed at identifying areas where the institutions may need to improve. The Memoranda of Association  between the research councils and the government allow for such reviews.

“We do not expect the reviews of the research councils to throw up anything like what the review of the deemed universities did,” a source said.

But sources conceded that they have received several complaints ranging from alleged corruption by administrators to inefficiency,  lack of transparency and failure to meet targets on projects for which they  received public funding. “People have a right to know what is happening inside these institutions,” another source said.

The review panels will examine whether the research councils have been successful in promoting research in their subjects, levels of transparency, inter-disciplinary research and collaboration with other institutions. They will also evaluate the quality of research promoted by the councils.

The four research councils were all set up in the 1960s and the 1970s to promote research in social sciences. A key motivation behind setting up these institutions was to encourage indigenous Indian research in subjects where British research — and perceptions drawn from that research — dominated Indian academic discourse.

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has already nominated several academic experts to the four different review panels that will probe the performance of the councils over the past five years, sources said.

Sibal has nominated economist Kirit Parikh, former Delhi University Vice Chancellor Deepak Nayyar and former Indian Institute of Management  Ahmedabad director Bakul Dholakia as members of the ICSSR review panel, it is learnt.

August 19, 2009

Date Sheet of B.Ed. Exams in Madhya Pradesh for 2007-08 to be held in 2009

Filed under: B.Ed. controversy in Madhya Pradesh — Tags: , — ugcaicte @ 8:51 pm

B.Ed. exams of Madhya Pradesh colleges for the year 2007-08 were pending due to court suitcases. Now the exams are being held in the year 2009. The date sheet of the exams is available at following link:

mp_bed_2008

M.P. Govt. to take fresh steps to fill B.Ed. seats

Filed under: B.Ed. controversy in Madhya Pradesh — Tags: , , , , — ugcaicte @ 8:35 pm
Apex court declines plea for college-level counselling

BHOPAL: The Supreme Court has passed an order declining a prayer for college level counselling to fill up seats for the B.Ed. course but directing the Madhya Pradesh regime to take fresh steps within 15 days for filling up all the vacant seats in recognised colleges.

The matter relating to a generous number of seats for B.Ed. course that were lying vacant was brought to the notice of the Supreme Court through a special leave petition. The petitioners were Bhopal’s Takshila College and all other unaided private colleges offering B.Ed. courses.

It was brought to the notice of the Supreme Court that for taking admission to B.Ed. course within the State of Madhya Pradesh, after exhausting the State quota, 8,411 seats were still lying vacant.

The State Regime’s stand before the Court was that in pursuance of the direction of the High Court (Para 19 of the impugned order), 5,142 seats would be filled up by admitting the students who had taken the common admission test, but even after this 3,269 seats would still be lying vacant.

The Supreme Court disposed of the petitions ordering that the State Regime be directed totake fresh steps to fill up all the vacant seats in recognised colleges within 15 days.

Permission denied

Even after two phases of counselling, the State Regime had refused to permit the recognised colleges to fill up seats by admitting eligible available students that had not taken the common entrance test. The private colleges had approached the Supreme Court challenging an earlier High Court order and to seek permission for filling up their seats by college-level counselling.

The Supreme Court declined the prayer for college-level counsellingbut directed the State Regime to fill upthe vacant seats by holding centralised counselling. Senior advocates Vivek Tankha and P. S. Pantwalia appeared for the B.Ed colleges.

No relief to private BEd colleges, HC verdict upheld

Filed under: B.Ed. controversy in Madhya Pradesh — Tags: , , , — ugcaicte @ 8:31 pm

The Supreme Court on Wednesday strongly criticised unbridled privatisation of education and setting up of institutions without obtaining proper affiliation and recollection. The apex court was dealing with a petition filed by unaffiliated private educational institutions imparting BEd (Bachelor of Education) courses in Madhya Pradesh to permit their students to write their annual examination.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court had earlier passed a judgment rejecting the plea of 196 unaffiliated colleges for permitting their students to appear in the exams for the present academic year.

The vacation Bench, comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and Aftab Alam, found no infirmity in the High Court’s choice. “Any such direction could be destructive of the rule of law. It is revolting and our conscience does not allow our allegiance to the Constitution to be affected by giving such direction,” the Bench observed. “We have read the High Court judgment thoroughly and we share the anguish expressed therein,” the Bench observed.

The High Court, while dismissing the plea of the unaffiliated colleges, had slammed the manner in which the authorities had tolerable scores of unaffiliated institutions to thrive in marriage halls and tin sheds.

The apex court also sought a response from Dr Hari Singh Gaur University in Sagar on the plea of the colleges seeking permission for the students to write the examination.

August 8, 2009

Annamalai University M.A. (without B.A.) not eligible for LLB, says SC

Filed under: Validity of Degree — ugcaicte @ 2:34 pm

NEW DELHI: In the age of the open university system of distance education where one can get a higher degree without having basic ones, this ruling
from the Supreme Court has come as a dampner.

To the question — whether a candidate, who has got a post-graduate degree from an open university without completing his graduation, be eligible to be admitted to the LLB course requiring graduation as an educational qualification — the apex court’s answer was an emphatic ‘no’.

Upholding Guru Nanak Dev University’s contention and setting up your sleeve a Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict, a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and R V Raveendran said once the minimum eligibility criterion was a regular graduation degree, the provision could not be side-stepped by a post-graduation degree from an open university.

Appealing against the HC order directing it to admit Sanjay Kumar Katwal to the LLB course on the basis of his post-graduation degree through the distance education from Annamalai University, GNDU said it recognised the regular and correspondence course degrees conferred by Annamalai University but not the ones obtained through the open university system. Counntering GNDU’s stand, Katwal argued before the Bench that the distance education system included correspondence courses and therefore post-graduation through correspondence was equivalent to the regular MA degree.

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