Mumbai: Maharashtra state cabinet on Friday cleared a proposal laying down guiding principles for the educational institutes to form cluster universities.
The decision will pave the way for the formation of new public universities in the state while bringing down the burden on the existing universities in the state. The Governor will be the Chancellor for all these Universities.
National Higher Education Mission promotes such clubbing together of good educational institutes. Accordingly three cluster Universities, viz. Dr Homi Bhabha State University, Hyderabad Sindh National Collegiate University, Mumbai and Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil University at Satara have already been set up in the state. The guidelines cleared today further defined the scope for formation of such cluster Universities.
Necessities for the primary college
According to the guidelines cleared today, the primary college of the cluster University should have a very good academic track record, possess necessary infrastructure, trained teachers and an institute or a college with capabilities to coordinate the activities as a University. clubbing of at least two and maximum of five granted or non-granted colleges would be necessary and all faculties except agriculture and science can be involved in the cluster. For a cluster of more than five colleges, the state would assess the proposals first.
Criteria to be recognized as a principal college
The principal college of the cluster should be active for more than 20 years, have more than 2,000 students and the overall University should have at least 4,000 students, all the colleges should have at least 15,000 sq mtr of built area and have at least 4 hectares of land at divisional headquarters and 6 hectare land if the clusters is elsewhere in the state.
The Principal college should have NAAC accreditation for at least five years with more than 3.25 CGPA rank or equivalent NBA marks or at least 50 percent of the syllabus should be NBA approved.
There are some other technical criteria also laid down by the cabinet. For running the University seven posts including that of the VC and the Registrar will be created for which the state shall give Rs 1 crore for the first five years to the University.
