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The thrust of the policy underlying the
XIth Plan for Higher
Education is on increasing access to quality
higher education while ensuring
equity. A new Scheme
for Reduction in
Regional Imbalances, Social Gaps and Promotion
of Inclusiveness in Higher
Education has been
introduced by the University
Grants Commission in
the XI Plan, which will serve the rural
and tribal areas
as well. Central Universities have
been established in
all the States in
the North-Eastern Region including in States with predominately
tribal population. In addition, during the XI Plan
a Central University will
be established in each of those
States where there is no Central University. 374 new colleges are proposed to be established one in each district where the
Gross Enrolment Ratio is lower than
the national average.
A scheme has also been drawn
up to provide
grants on a sharing
basis to the universities and colleges
which are not
eligible for central assistance under
the University Grants Commission
Act, 1956 including those located
in tribal areas.
There are also schemes for scholarships for Scheduled
Tribe students and construction of girls’
hostels in Colleges
and Universities
serving areas of low access to higher education. In addition
, the Indira
Gandhi National Tribal University has
been established, with its headquarters at Amarkantak
in Madhya Pradesh, to
provide avenues of higher
education and research
facilities primarily for
the tribal population of the country. The University is empowered to
open such number of Regional Centres and
Campuses in tribal areas as the University may deem fit. In the
XI Plan, a target has been set to increase the
GrossEnrolment Ratio (GER) of the students in
the eligible age group of 18-24 years
in higher education by 5 percentage points by the end
of XI Plan. Provision
for infrastructural and other requirements
for this purpose is
required to be made by Central
and State Governments.
Within the constraint of availability of resources an amount of Rs.
84,943 crores has been
provided by the
Central Government in the XI Plan for various schemes for enhancing
access to quality higher
education, while ensuring
equity. Various reforms
measures such as introduction
of semester system, credit transfer,
rationalization of admission
procedure for Ph.D.
programmes have also been initiated. The Plan allocation during the years from
2005-06 to 2008-09 for he Department of Higher Education is as under:- Year Rs. in crores 2005-06 1817.00 2006-07 2530.50 2007-08 6483.00 2008-09 7600.00 This information
was given by Smt. D.Purandeswari,
Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, in a written
reply to a question in the Parliament recently.
KKP/ska
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Promotion of Higher Education
