The Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) has proposed the establishment of a State Research Board to promote effective and efficient research in institutions of higher education in the State.
“We want to place science and technology as the pivot for social and economic change by supporting socially relevant and scientific research and development,” said Council Chairman K. Hemachandra Reddy.
He said the plan was to switch to the accelerated mode through the Board to raise the quality of science and engineering fields to a global level. Innovative programmes were being designed to bring in researchers from under-represented regions and from weaker and marginalised segments of the society. “Synergy between the academia, industry and the society is the key to set the ball rolling,” he said.
The Board, he explained, will serve as a nodal agency for planning and promoting besides tapping funding, both nationally and globally, for internationally competitive research in emerging areas.
He said a committee was at work to identify major inter-disciplinary research areas, individuals, groups and institutions to unify them for collective projects.
The initiative is mainly to establish a ecosystem of scientific pursuit, he said, informing that the Council had signed an MoU with the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) to take up individually and collectively, training programmes for promotion of quality in research.
The APSCHE has asked universities and colleges in the state to set up Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Start-up Centres (EISC) on their campuses, to ignite creative thinking and nurture entrepreneurial instincts in students.
Quality Assurance Cell
The Council has also established a State-level Quality Assurance Cell not just to promote quality in higher education institutions but also to extend qualitative support to universities and colleges and make them assessment-ready by NAAC and NBA.
“We are developing a database of all universities and colleges on quality parameters to identify quality gaps and suggest measures besides putting in place a quality audit system in all institutions,” said Mr. Hemachandra.
To strengthen the affiliated college system, the Council is also conducting a study to identify the need to start a college in different geographical areas, and had served notices on 247 colleges seeking their explanation on their poor performance and was treading cautiously in grant of new programmes to colleges, he said.
