13-Nov-2018: Leadership for Academicians Program (LEAP) and Annual Refresher Programme In Teaching (ARPIT) for higher education faculty.

Dr. Satya Pal Singh, Minister of State, Ministry of Human Resource Development, launched two new initiatives; Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) and Annual Refresher Programme In Teaching (ARPIT) at New Delhi. He also released information brochures of both the initiatives during the event. While addressing the gathering, Dr Satya Pal Singh said that developing good teachers is an arduous task and if teachers show enough commitment, ARPIT will go a long way in empowering the teaching faculty. Committed teachers will develop confidence and competence and must become effective communicators so that they can spread knowledge like the rays of the sun. Combining the qualities of a good teacher and an effective leader is still more daunting task but not an impossible task, the Minister said. LEAP will fulfill this critical need which will make higher education institutions perform their roles of developing better students who will be future torch bearers. A leader must talk for all generations, present and future; only then institutional growth can be achieved.

Shri Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of Human Resource Development in his video message lauded these initiatives which are set to transform quality of teaching and improve leaders, thereby enhancing the quality of higher education institutions. He highlighted the need for constant updation to keep abreast of recent developments which will enrich the teaching learning experiences. Combining academic and administrative leadership is an equal requirement for those heading educational institutions and he hoped that LEAP will help in creating better higher education leaders of tomorrow. He appealed to all faculties in higher education to take benefit of these two initiatives.

The launch event was graced by Secretary (HE), Chairman UGC, Vice-Chairman AICTE and senior officials of the Department of Higher Education, UGC and AICTE. It was attended by Vice-Chancellors, Directors, heads of autonomous bodies, Project Coordinators of National Resource Centres of ARPIT and representatives of LEAP training institutions.

Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) is a three weeks Flagship leadership development training programme (2 weeks domestic and one week foreign training) for second level academic functionaries in public funded higher education institutions. The main objective is to prepare second tier academic heads who are potentially likely to assume leadership roles in the future. The programme would provide senior faculty, with high academic credentials, the required leadership and managerial skills including skills of problem-solving, handling stress, team building work, conflict management, developing communication skills, understanding and coping with the complexity and challenges of governance in HEIs, financial & general administration.

The implementation of LEAP Programme will be through 15 NIRF top ranked Indian Institutions namely, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee; IIT Kanpur; NIT Trichy; Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata; Jawaharlal Nehru University; IIT (BHU); University of Delhi; Indian Institute of Technology Bombay; TISS Mumbai; University of Hyderabad ; NIEPA, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur; Jamia Milia Islamia; Banaras Hindu University and AMU.

The foreign Universities identified for the training are also within the top 100 in the world global rankings. The foreign collaborating institutions are University of Michigan; NTU Singapore; Harvard University; Purdue University, USA ; University of Chicago; University of Pennsylvania / Stanford; Monash University; London School of Economics/ Oxford University; University of Cambridge and University of Virginia, USA.

Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching (ARPIT), a major and unique initiative of online professional development of 15 lakh higher education faculty using the MOOCs platform SWAYAM. For implementing ARPIT, 75 discipline-specific institutions have been identified and notified as National Resource Centres (NRCs) in the first phase, which are tasked to prepare online training material with focus on latest developments in the discipline, new & emerging trends, pedagogical improvements and methodologies for transacting revised curriculum.

In 2018, the inaugural year itself, the NRCs are expected to cater to around 13 lakh faculty of the total 15 lakh faculty in higher education. The courses cover a diverse range of topics such as, inter alia, Indian culture & Heritage Studies, Pedagogical Innovations & Research Methodology, Latest Trends in Pedagogy and Assessment, Personal-Emotional Development and Counselling , Neural Networks and Deep Learning &  Knowledge discovery, ICT in Science and Maths teaching, Innovation and Best Practices in Educational Skills, Leadership and Governance in Higher Education, Public Policy and Administration, English Language Teaching, Hindi Literature &  Linguistics, Methodology of Teaching Sanskrit, Effective Creations and Innovative Researches in Medieval Gujarati Literature, Tribal and Regional languages, Urdu, French Studies, Tools, techniques and experiments in Earth Science,  Mathematics, Statistics, Zoology, Chemistry, Physics, Biotechnology , Biomechanics, Marine Science, Calculus, Real Time Power Analysis and Smart Grid, Civil Infrastructure for Smart City Development, Engineering Mechanics, Design Spectrum, DIY Manufacturing Technology, Advanced Concepts in Fluid Mechanics, Energy Systems Engineering, Engineering Mechanics, Physics of Semiconductors and Devices, Internet of Things, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Electrical Engineering,  Bio-Medical engineering, Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Sciences, Chemical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Political Science, Economics, Psychology, Development Perspectives in Agriculture, Gender/Women's studies, Law, Disaster Management, Climate change, Library & Information Science, Ethics, Human Rights and Environment , Social and Rural Development, Anthropology etc. Currently, registrations are open for the online refresher courses on SWAYAM platform, https://swayam.gov.in/courses/public

The course is a 40 hour module with 20 hours of video content and 20 hours of non-video content. They are offered in a highly flexible format and can be done at one’s own pace and time. There are built-in assessment exercises and activities as part of the academic progression in the course. At the end of the course, they will be a terminal assessment which can be either online or a written examination. All faculties who have successfully completed the online refresher course will be certified. The courses will remain open from 1st November, 2018 to 28th February, 2019.  All in-service teachers, irrespective of their subject and seniority are requested to register and complete these refresher courses which will help them in career advancement.

NRCs are located in a mixed range of institutions such as, Central Universities, IISc, IUCAA, IITs, IISERs, NITs, State Universities under the Ministry’s Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT); UGC’s Human Resource Development Centres (HRDCs), National Institutes for Technical Teachers Training (NITTTRs), IIITs and IGNOU.

Out of 75 institutions, already 68 have uploaded their courses and started registering the teachers. Till now, more than 30,000 teachers have enrolled to obtain online professional development training. Necessary regulations will be taken out by UGC, recognising the MOOCs based online refresher training of teachers for the CAS (Career Advancement Scheme). The production of MOOCs courses by the teachers is also recognised for the CAS. This is expected to be a major incentive for the higher education faculty to undergo training through MOOCs courses and also to produce MOOCs courses.

ARPIT will be an ongoing exercise so that every year NRCs will continuously develop new refresher module in their earmarked discipline each year. The training materials will be uploaded and made available through SWAYAM. NRC will publish the list of the faculty who have been certified. The NRCs will revolutionize professional development of faculty by catering to massive numbers by leveraging ICT and online technology platform of SWAYAM.

25-Oct-2018: HRD Ministry launches web portal of the SPARC Scheme

The Minister of Human Resource Development, Shri Prakash Javadekar launched the web portal of the Scheme “Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC)”. The SPARC scheme aims at improving the research ecosystem of India’s higher educational institutions by facilitating academic and research collaborations between Indian Institutions and the best institutions in the world.

Under this Scheme, 600 joint research proposals will be awarded for 2 years to facilitate strong research collaboration between Indian research groups with the best in class faculty and renowned research groups in the leading universities of the world, in areas that are at the cutting edge of science or with direct social relevance to the mankind, specifically India.

The Government in August 2018 had sanctioned the scheme “Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC)” at a total cost of Rs.418 Cr for implementation up to 31.3.2020 and Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur is the National Coordinating Institute to implement the SPARC programme.

 Features of  SPARC are :

This scheme will improve research ecosystem of  India’s higher educational institutions by facilitating academic and research collaborations between Indian Institutions [overall top-100 or category-wise top-100 in NIRF ( including such Private Institutions which are recognized under 12(B) of UGC Act)] and the best institutions in the world (top-500 overall and top-200 subject-wise institutions listed in QS World University Ranking) from 28 selected nations [Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom(UK), United States of America(USA)]    to jointly solve problems of national and international relevance. As per the criteria mentioned above, 254 top Indian Institutes and 478 top ranked global Institutes have been already identified.

A set of 5 Thrust Areas (Fundamental Research, Emergent Areas of Impact, Convergence, Action-Oriented Research and Innovation-Driven) and sub-theme areas in each thrust area has been identified for collaboration under SPARC based on emergent relevance and importance for the nation.

Each Thrust Area will have a Section Chair. The role of Section Chair of each Thrust Area is to review shortlist and recommend the potential joint-proposals submitted under SPARC scheme.

A set of Nodal Institutions (NI), from India, for each participating foreign country has been identified. The role of a NI is to help, handhold and coordinate with willing Participating Indian (PI) Institutions to forge alliance with the Institutions of concerned participating foreign country, for academic and research collaboration.  25 such reputed Institutions have been notified as Nodal Institutions.

SPARC proposes to enable productive academic cooperation by supporting the following critical components that can catalyze impact making research : i) Visits and long-term stay of top international faculty/researchers in Indian institutions to pursue teaching and research , ii) Visits by Indian students for training and experimentation in premier laboratories worldwide , iii) Joint development of niche courses, world-class books and monographs, translatable patents, demonstrable technologies or action oriented research outcomes and products , iv) Publication , Dissemination and Visibility through a high profile annual international conference in India .

This Scheme is expected to have a major impact in providing the best international expertise to address major national problems, expose Indian academicians to the best collaborators abroad, enable international faculty to stay in India for a longer duration, provide Indian students an opportunity to work in the world class laboratories, to develop strong bilateral relationships in research, and improve the international ranking of Indian Institutes.