Topics Covered
Learning in Ancient India
Nalanda and Takshashila
Education Commissions
National Policies on Education
NEP 2020
Oriental, Conventional and Non-conventional Programmes
Open and Distance Learning
Professional and Skill Education
Value and Environmental Education
Governance of Higher Education
Contents
- 1. Institutions of Higher Learning in Ancient India
- 2. Higher Learning and Research since Independence
- 3. Oriental, Conventional and Non-conventional Programmes
- 4. Professional, Technical and Skill-based Education
- 5. Value Education and Environmental Education
- 6. Policies, Governance and Administration
Topic Overview — What & Why
Unit X is the history and the institutions of the system a UGC NET candidate hopes to teach in. Its questions are almost all matching: a commission with its chairman and years, a policy with its year, a body with its function, an ancient university with its founder or its region. Learn the tables; the order of events matters as much as the dates.
- Ancient centres: Takshashila, Nalanda, Vikramashila, Valabhi, Odantapuri.
- Since 1947: the Radhakrishnan and Kothari commissions; the policies of 1968, 1986 (revised 1992) and 2020; the UGC, AICTE, NAAC and NIRF.
- Kinds of programme: oriental, conventional, and the open and distance programmes of IGNOU and the state open universities.
- Governance: education on the Concurrent List since 1976; the kinds of university; the regulators.
1. Institutions of Higher Learning in Ancient India
| Centre | Where | When and by whom | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Takshashila (Taxila) | Near present-day Rawalpindi, Pakistan | Flourished from about the 6th century BCE | Medicine, law, military science, grammar; associated with Chanakya, Panini and the physician Jivaka |
| Nalanda | Bihar | Founded in the 5th century CE under the Gupta king Kumaragupta I | A great residential Buddhist university; the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang studied there; destroyed about 1193; its ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site (2016) |
| Vikramashila | Bihar | Founded by the Pala king Dharmapala, late 8th century | Tantric Buddhism; the scholar Atisha |
| Valabhi | Gujarat | Under the Maitraka kings, from the 6th century | Hinayana Buddhism, and secular subjects such as law and economics |
| Odantapuri | Bihar | Founded by the Pala king Gopala, 8th century | Buddhist learning |
Before and beside these was the gurukula: students lived with the teacher, served the household and learnt orally, free of fees; a gift to the teacher (gurudakshina) closed the course. Learning in temples (ghatikas, agraharas), and Jain and Buddhist monasteries (viharas), carried it on.
EXAMPLE 1
A question asks which ancient university was founded under Kumaragupta I. Nalanda. Vikramashila and Odantapuri were Pala foundations.
EXAMPLE 2
A question asks which centre lies outside present-day India. Takshashila, now in Pakistan.
2. Higher Learning and Research since Independence
| Year | Commission, policy or body | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1948–49 | University Education Commission, chaired by S. Radhakrishnan | The first commission of independent India; recommended a University Grants Commission |
| 1952–53 | Secondary Education Commission, chaired by A. L. Mudaliar | School education |
| 1953; 1956 | University Grants Commission | Inaugurated in 1953; made a statutory body by the UGC Act, 1956 |
| 1964–66 | Education Commission, chaired by D. S. Kothari | Report Education and National Development; proposed the 10+2+3 pattern and a common school system |
| 1968 | First National Policy on Education | Based on the Kothari report |
| 1986; 1992 | Second National Policy on Education; revised in 1992 with a Programme of Action | Led to IGNOU (1985, just before it), NAAC (1994), and open learning |
| 1987 | AICTE made statutory | The All India Council for Technical Education (set up as an advisory body in 1945) gained statutory powers by an Act of 1987 |
| 1994 | National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) | Set up by the UGC, in Bengaluru, to assess and accredit institutions |
| 2013 | Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) | Central funding for state higher-education institutions |
| 2015 | National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) | Ranks institutions each year, the first rankings in 2016 |
| 2020 | National Education Policy 2020 | Drafted by a committee chaired by K. Kasturirangan; aims at a gross enrolment ratio of 50% in higher education by 2035; four-year undergraduate degrees with multiple entry and exit; the Academic Bank of Credits |
EXAMPLE 1
Arrange in order: NEP 2020, Kothari Commission, Radhakrishnan Commission, NPE 1986. Radhakrishnan (1948–49), Kothari (1964–66), NPE 1986, NEP 2020.
EXAMPLE 2
A question asks which body grades colleges A++ to C after a peer-team visit. NAAC; NIRF ranks them instead.
3. Oriental, Conventional and Non-conventional Programmes
- Oriental learning keeps the classical Indian and Asian traditions: Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Persian and Arabic, in Sanskrit universities, pathshalas, and madrasas, with degrees such as Shastri and Acharya.
- Conventional programmes are the regular, campus-based degrees of colleges and universities: full-time, attended in person, examined by the institution.
- Non-conventional programmes break one of those conditions: correspondence and distance education (Delhi University began correspondence courses in 1962), open universities (the first state open university was founded in Andhra Pradesh in 1982, now Dr B. R. Ambedkar Open University; IGNOU, the national open university, in 1985), online degrees, and part-time and evening courses.
- Open and distance learning is regulated by the UGC; its strengths are reach, flexibility and cost; its weaknesses, completion rates and the quality of support.
EXAMPLE 1
A working clerk studies for a degree from IGNOU, from study material and weekend counselling sessions. A non-conventional, open and distance programme.
EXAMPLE 2
A student takes an Acharya degree in Vyakarana (grammar) at a Sanskrit university. Oriental learning.
4. Professional, Technical and Skill-based Education
- Professional education prepares for a regulated profession: medicine, law, engineering, teaching, architecture, pharmacy, nursing. Each has a council: the National Medical Commission (which replaced the Medical Council of India in 2020), the Bar Council of India, AICTE, the National Council for Teacher Education, the Council of Architecture, the Pharmacy Council.
- Technical education runs from polytechnics (diplomas) to engineering colleges, the IITs and NITs.
- Skill-based education trains for a trade: Industrial Training Institutes, apprenticeships and short courses. The National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF, 2013) arranges qualifications in levels by competence, so that skills can be recognised and built on. The Skill India mission was launched in 2015.
- NEP 2020 asks for vocational education to be part of mainstream schooling and higher education, and not a separate stream.
EXAMPLE 1
A question asks which body regulates technical education in India. AICTE; NCTE regulates teacher education.
EXAMPLE 2
A B.Voc. student does a semester-long internship in a hospital's medical-records office and earns credits for it. Skill-based education integrated into a degree, as NEP 2020 proposes.
5. Value Education and Environmental Education
- Value education develops values such as truthfulness, non-violence, respect, responsibility, empathy and the values of the Constitution: justice, liberty, equality, fraternity. It works less through lectures than through example, discussion of dilemmas, service and the school's own culture. NEP 2020 names ethical and constitutional values among the aims of education.
- Environmental education builds knowledge of, and responsibility for, the environment. Following the Supreme Court's directions in M. C. Mehta v. Union of India, environmental studies became a compulsory part of education; the UGC framed a compulsory course in environmental studies for undergraduates.
- The aims usually listed (from the Tbilisi Declaration of UNESCO and UNEP, 1977): awareness, knowledge, attitudes, skills and participation.
EXAMPLE 1
Students run a campus audit of water use and propose savings to the administration. Environmental education through participation.
EXAMPLE 2
A class debates whether to report a friend who copied in an examination. A value dilemma used for value education.
6. Policies, Governance and Administration
- The Constitution: education was moved from the State List to the Concurrent List by the 42nd Amendment of 1976, so both the Union and the states can make laws on it. Entry 66 of the Union List gives the Union the coordination and determination of standards in higher education and research.
- Kinds of university:
- Central universities, by Act of Parliament;
- State universities, by Act of a state legislature;
- Deemed-to-be universities, so declared under Section 3 of the UGC Act;
- State private universities, by state Act;
- Institutions of National Importance (the IITs, AIIMS and others), by Act of Parliament.
- Inside a university: the Chancellor (for a state university, usually the Governor), the Vice-Chancellor (its chief executive and academic officer), the Court or Senate, the Executive Council or Syndicate (administration and finance), and the Academic Council (courses, examinations and academic standards).
- Regulators and quality: the UGC (standards and grants), AICTE (technical education), NCTE (teacher education), the professional councils, NAAC (accreditation) and the National Board of Accreditation (for programmes, chiefly technical).
- NEP 2020 proposes a single umbrella regulator, the Higher Education Commission of India, with separate bodies for regulation, accreditation, funding and academic standards, in place of the present separate regulators. Check its current legal status before quoting it as in force.
EXAMPLE 1
A question asks under which list of the Constitution education now falls. The Concurrent List, since the 42nd Amendment (1976).
EXAMPLE 2
A question asks which university body approves a new syllabus. The Academic Council; the Executive Council deals with administration and finance.
Exam pointers for Unit X.
- Nalanda – Kumaragupta I (Gupta), Bihar. Vikramashila – Dharmapala (Pala). Odantapuri – Gopala (Pala). Valabhi – Gujarat. Takshashila – now in Pakistan.
- Radhakrishnan 1948–49; Mudaliar 1952–53; Kothari 1964–66; NPE 1968, 1986 (revised 1992); NEP 2020.
- UGC 1953, statutory 1956. AICTE statutory 1987. NAAC 1994. NIRF 2015. IGNOU 1985. RUSA 2013.
- NEP 2020: GER 50% by 2035; four-year UG with multiple exits; a single regulator proposed.
- Education: Concurrent List since 1976; Entry 66, Union List.
- Academic Council: courses and standards. Executive Council: administration and finance.
Final Revision Checklist
- The five ancient centres, their founders, places and subjects; the gurukula.
- The commissions and policies in order, with chairmen and years.
- The UGC, AICTE, NAAC, NIRF, RUSA; NEP 2020's main proposals.
- Oriental, conventional and non-conventional programmes; open and distance learning.
- Professional councils, technical education, NSQF and Skill India.
- Value education; environmental education and its basis.
- The Concurrent List and Entry 66; kinds of university; university bodies; regulators.
Sources
- Ministry of Education: National Education Policy 2020; the National Policies on Education of 1968 and 1986 (with the Programme of Action, 1992): education.gov.in.
- Report of the University Education Commission (1949); Education and National Development: Report of the Education Commission 1964–66.
- University Grants Commission: the UGC Act, 1956, and the regulations on open and distance learning: ugc.gov.in. AICTE: aicte-india.org. NAAC: naac.gov.in. NIRF: nirfindia.org.
- The Constitution of India: the Seventh Schedule (Union List, Entry 66; Concurrent List, Entry 25) and the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976: legislative.gov.in.
- UNESCO World Heritage List: "Archaeological Site of Nalanda Mahavihara" (2016): whc.unesco.org.