Young faculties present proposals for research

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BHUBANESWAR: The higher education department has shortlisted 106 research proposals from young faculties of different government colleges and universities to carry out research after getting seed fund from the state government. A technical selection committee with subject experts has started interviewing the faculties from Friday.

The faculties will present their papers in favour of their research ideas before the committee. This process will continue till March 24. After going through the presentations, the committee will select 40 faculties for the seed fund of Rs 5 lakh, said higher education minister Arun Kumar Sahoo here on Friday.

These candidates had applied between December last year and January this year. As many as 166 faculties had applied for seed fund this year. The selection committee has found 13 of them ineligible. Research papers of 153 faculties were sent for external review. Only 106 research proposals were shortlisted for the final interview starting from Friday.

According to the policy guidelines of ‘Odisha University Research and Innovation Incentivisation Plan (OURIIP)’ framed by the state government in November 2018, a seed funding of Rs 5 lakh will be given to each faculty member for research work. Each year 40 faculties will be provided with such funding, said the minister.

He said any young faculty below 45 years with a PhD degree and working in a regular capacity in state universities and colleges (government and aided) under higher education department and also in state government technical colleges/universities under skill development and technical education department can apply for this seed funding.

The proposal should be based on new and innovative ideas, use of an appropriate methodology to address the research problems, proper budgetary estimation and outcome of the project. They will publish their research articles in a reputed Scopus Indexed journal. Now 37 faculties are undertaking research on different proposals approved by the department in November 2019.

The department has also received 52 applications for junior research fellowship from some selected national eligibility test (NET) qualified scholars, who have failed to get junior research fellow (JRF) awarded by the University Grants Commission (UGC) or Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Out of 52 scholars, 16 are shortlisted for the fellowship this year.

The minister said the period of fellowship will be limited to four years, extendable to another one year with the prior approval of the OSHEC. “An eligible candidate can get fellowship of Rs 15000 per month with a contingency of Rs 25000 per year for subjects having laboratory work and Rs 15000 for subjects without laboratory work. The number of fellowships in each subject is limited to five with two fellowships reserved for girl students. That means 40 per cent seats for fellowship is reserved for girl scholars,” he added.

The scholars will also take three classes every week. “A total of 175 scholars can be selected for the fellowship each year. It will be given in 35 subjects. The candidate must be below 35 years of age to get this fellowship,” said Sahoo.



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UGC finalises draft for Indian, global institutions offering joint or dual degrees

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Indian and foreign higher education institutions may soon be able to offer joint or dual degrees and twinning programmes with the University Grants Commission (UGC) finalising a draft for the regulations of these programmes. However, a final decision in this regard will be taken following evaluation of feedback received on the draft, which has been put in public domain.

According to the draft UGC (Academic Collaboration between Indian and Foreign Higher Education Institutions to offer Joint Degree, Dual Degree and Twinning Programmes) Regulations, 2021, higher education institutions of India can collaborate with foreign counterparts for credit recognition and transfer, twinning arrangement as well as offer degrees. However, regulations shall not be applicable to programmes offered in online and open and distance learning mode.

“Any Indian institution accredited by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) with a minimum score of 3.01 or in the top 100 in University category of National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) or an Institution of Eminence can collaborate with any foreign institution in top 500 of Times Higher Education or QS World University ranking automatically where as other Indian institutions and any foreign institution accredited by an assessment and accreditation agency in their homeland will have to seek approval of the UGC,” the draft said.

According to the regulations, any degree or diploma awarded based on these collaborations “shall be equivalent to any corresponding degree or diploma awarded by the Indian Higher Education institution and there shall be no further requirement of seeking equivalence from any authority”.

“The dual degree programme the degrees will be conferred by the Indian and foreign higher education institutions, separately and simultaneously, upon completion of degree requirements of both the institutions. The partnerships would be allowed for four types of academic collaborations, which include credit recognition and transfer, joint degree programme, dual degree programme and twinning arrangement,” the draft said.

“Under the twinning arrangement, while a student enrolled in an Indian institution may undertake their programme of study partly in the foreign higher education institution, the degree or diploma offered shall be awarded by the Indian higher education institution only. The joint degree will be a single certificate bearing the crests and logo of both collaborating institutions,” it added. As per the draft regulations no franchise arrangement will be allowed under these collaborations.

“A franchise arrangement, whether overtly or covertly, by whatever nomenclature used, between a foreign higher education institution and an Indian higher education institution shall not be allowed under these regulations,” it said.

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UGC frames draft regulations for dual, twinning, joint degrees with foreign varsities

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The University Grants Commission (UGC) has invited views from stakeholders on the draft regulations on “an academic collaboration between Indian and foreign higher education institutions to offer a joint degree, dual degree, and twinning programmes”. The stakeholders can send their suggestions till March 5 at ugcforeigncollaboration@gmail.com.

UGC in an official notice states, “Budget announcement of 2021 proposed regulatory mechanism to permit dual degrees, joint degrees and twinning arrangements”. This is also in line with the NEP 2020 which seeks more collaborations between institutes internationally.

“Accordingly, UGC constituted a Committee to frame enabling Regulations in these regards. The draft UGC (Academic collaboration between Indian and foreign Higher Education Institutions to offer Joint Degree, Dual Degree and Twinning Programme) Regulations, 2O21 are hereby placed in the public domain,” it added.

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As per the draft guidelines, Indian higher education institutes in the top 100 in University category of National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) or institutions of eminence can collaborate wth top 500 institutes in THE or QS World University ranking.

“If an Indian higher education institution issues an advertisement that it is offering a degree/diploma from a foreign higher education institution and if such collaboration does not have the approval of the Commission, the Commission shall conduct a preliminary inquiry and on completion of its inquiry, the commission shall initiate appropriate penal action against the Indian Higher Education Institution,” states the draft guidelines

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