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Minister of Human Resources Kapil Sibal hopes to get the controversial Bill that seeks to set up a national accreditation body and compulsory accreditation for institutes of higher education, passed in the Winter session of Parliament.
At the sidelines of the India-New Zealand Education Council Meeting on Friday, Sibal said that as the number of students pursuing higher education is expected to increase to over 35 million in the next 10 years, from 20 million today, there is enormous pressure to either expand the current institutions or open new ones.
He said the country would need 50,000 more colleges by 2020, and this means that the private sector needs to get involved in much larger capacity, as the Government does not have the resources to achieve this target on its own.
However, he added that to monitor these private institutes you need an efficient accreditation mechanism, and for that the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill needs to come into effect soon.
“I am hopeful that the Opposition leaders will support this Bill in the Winter session,” he said.
NZ tie-up
Meanwhile, Sibal and New Zealand’s Minister of Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Steven Joyce held the first India-New Zealand Education Council Meeting in New Delhi.
The two countries signed four memorandums of understanding between education institutes of the two countries.
The Indian universities that have signed the MoUs are University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Punjab Technical University and Indira Gandhi National Open University.
The ministers also announced that the two countries would set up the New Zealand India Research Institute in partnership, to be based at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. The institute will be operational in November.
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