Maharashtra varsities to submit NEP progress report in 8 days

Mumbai: Maharashtra’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 Implementation State Committee, on Tuesday, May 9, held an online meeting with Vice Chancellors of all state universities to gauge the headway made with the NEP adoption. All state universities are to submit a progress report on NEP implementation to Maharashtra's Directorate of Higher Education and Principal Secretary of Higher Education by May 15, 2023.

Meanwhile, with no academic council or Board of Studies in place, additional Vice Chancellors from Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) and Mumbai University have been asked to take charge and start implementation with the help of academicians on campus. “The policy can be implemented even in this interim period and can be further ratified by the new Vice Chancellors if needed,” said Prof Nitin Karmalkar, Chairman of the NEP 2020 Implementation State Committee.

The top post at SPPU has been vacant since May 2022 and MU has been without a Vice Chancellor since September 2022. While the progress at these varsities dawdles, the other state universities in the state show promise when it comes to policy adoption. “Nearly 70% of the policy adoption has been completed at universities in Solapur, Aurangabad, and Nagpur among others. Syllabus as per the new credit structure released by the state government on April 20 is already being deliberated by the Board of Studies at these universities,” said Prof Nitin Karmalkar.

With the new syllabus rolling out in the academic year 2023-24, sensitising students about the policy is next for the committee. Ensuring a uniform academic year, a consistent credit structure, and the availability of baskets remains a priority to allow students to enter and exit their courses multiple times.

The committee is also mulling over the creation of a statewide e-Board of Studies or e-BoS to resolve the road bumps all universities might face while putting NEP to practise. “Our idea is to create an e-BoS with a representative of each state university. The board will be able to raise problems that multiple universities might face and suggest solutions will be easier too,” said Prof Karmalkar. The policy is to kick off in the upcoming academic year which is scheduled to begin in June 2023.