For the first time in the history of Indian higher education, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has recommended the creation of 400 “college cluster universities” in the country with greater administrative and full academic freedom on the lines of Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT).
Each cluster university will consist of 20 high-quality government and aided colleges. The UGC has also suggested that colleges with minimum 5-acre land can admit 1,000 students and universities, which have 200 to 500 acres, can admit 5,000 to 10,000 students every year.
Speaking to this newspaper on Saturday, Prof. S.P. Thyagarajan, pro-chancellor (research), Sri Ramachandra University, who, with four others, has compiled and edited the UGC’s 12th five-year plan, said that the commission would recommend the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) to bring 20,000 government and its aided colleges under section 12B of the UGC Act to provide them government grants and create 400 college cluster universities.
State governments would create these universities by enacting a legislation based on a model Act to be provided by HRD ministry and the commission.