This document provides an overview of higher education around the world with a focus on policies in India and Europe. It defines higher education and describes its history dating back to ancient Greece and India. It outlines the international standards for classifying education levels and discusses the providers and functions of higher education. The document also summarizes key policies in India like the New Education Policy of 2020 and the Agricultural Education Policy. For Europe, it discusses the Bologna Process, Erasmus+ program, priorities of the European Commission and European Union support for higher education mobility and excellence.

1. Major Higher education views in the World& with
highlights of New Education Policy-2020 and
Introduction Agricultural Education Policy of India
By:
B. Bhaskar
India

2. Higher education
• Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of
an academic degree.
• Higher education, also called post-secondary education,
third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage
of formal learning that occurs after completion
of secondary education. It represents levels 6, 7 and 8 of
the 2011 version of the International Standard
Classification of Education structure.
• higher education, any of various types of education given
in postsecondary institutions of learning and usually
affording, at the end of a course of study, a named degree,
diploma, or certificate of higher studies.
• Tertiary education at a non-degree level is sometimes
referred to as further education or continuing education as
distinct from higher education.

3. The right of access to higher education
• The right of access to higher education is mentioned in
a number of international human rights instruments.
• The UN International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights of 1966 declares, in Article 13, that
"higher education shall be made equally accessible to
all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate
means, and in particular by the progressive introduction
of free education".
• In Europe, Article 2 of the First Protocol to the
European Convention on Human Rights, adopted in
1950, obliges all signatory parties to guarantee the right
to education.
• s

4. Definition
• Higher education, also call post-secondary education, third-level
or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that
occurs after completion of secondary education. This consists of
Universities, Colleges and Polytechnics that offer formal degrees beyond
high school or secondary school education.
• The International Standard Classification of Education in 1997
initially classified all tertiary education together in 1997 version of its
schema. They were referred to as level 5 and doctoral studies at level 6.
• In 2011, this was refined and expanded 2011 version of the structure.
Higher education at undergraduate level, masters and doctoral level
became levels 6, 7 and 8. Non-degree level Tertiary education,
sometimes referred to as further education or continuing education was
reordered ISCED 2011 level 4, with level 5 for some higher courses.
• In the days when few pupils progressed beyond primary
education or basic education, the term "higher education" was often used
to refer to secondary education, which can create some confusion. This is
the origin of the term high school for various schools for children
between the ages of 14 and 18 (United States) or 11 and 18 (UK and
Australia).

5. Providers
• In the US, Higher Education is provided
by universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, conservatories, and institutes of
technology, and certain college-level institutions, including vocational schools,
universities of applied sciences, trade schools, and other career-based colleges that
award degrees.
• Tertiary education at non-degree level is sometimes referred to as further education
or continuing education as distinct from higher education.
• Higher education includes teaching, research, exacting applied work (e.g. in medical
schools and dental schools), and social services activities of universities.
• Within the realm of teaching, it includes both the undergraduate level, and beyond
that, graduate-level (or postgraduate level).
• The latter level of education is often referred to as graduate school, especially in
North America.
• In addition to the skills that are specific to any particular degree, potential employers
in any profession are looking for evidence of critical thinking and analytical
reasoning skills, teamworking skills, information literacy, ethical
judgment, decision-making skills, fluency in speaking and writing, problem
solving skills, and a wide knowledge of liberal arts and sciences

6. History
• The oldest institutions of higher education appeared between the 5th and the 2nd centuries
B.C. in several major cultural areas of Eurasia.
• In the Greek world, Plato's Academy, Aristotle's Lycaeum and other philosophical-
mathematical schools became models for other establishments, particularly
in Alexandria of Egypt under the Ptolemies. In India, the city of Takṣaśilā ater the great
Buddhist monastery of Nālandā, attracted students and professors even from distant
regions. In China, the Han dynasty established chairs to teach the Five Confucean
Classics, then in - 124 the Grand School to train cadres for the imperial administration.
• All these higher-learning institutions became models for other schools within their sphere
of cultural influence.
• In 425, the Byzantine emperor Theodosius II innovated as he established
the Pandidakterion, with a faculty of 31 professors, to train public servants. In the 7th and
8th centuries, "cathedral schools" were created in Western Europe. Meanwhile, the first
Medresahs were founded in the Moslem empire – initially mere primary schools in the
premises of major mosques, which gradually evolved toward secondary, later higher
education. However high the intellectual level of these schools could be, it would be
anachronistic to call them "universities". Their organization and purposes were markedly
different from the corporations of students and teachers, independent from both the
Church and the State, which established themselves from the 12th century in Western
Europe as Universitas Studiorum.
• According to UNESCO and Guinness World Records, the University of al-Qarawiyyin
in Fez, Morocco is the oldest existing continually operating higher educational institution
in the world. and is occasionally referred to as the oldest university by scholars.
• Undoubtedly, there are older institutions of higher education, for example, the University
of Ez-Zitouna in Montfleury, Tunis, was first established in 737. The oldest university in
the world is the University of Bologna, founded in 1088.

7. 20th century:
• Since World War II, developed and many developing countries
have increased the participation of the age group who mostly
studies higher education from the elite rate, of up to 15 per
cent, to the mass rate of 16 to 50 per cent.
• In many developed countries, participation in higher
education has continued to increase towards universal or,
what Trow later called, open access, where over half of the
relevant age group participate in higher education.
• Higher education is important to national economies, both as
an industry, in its own right, and as a source of trained and
educated personnel for the rest of the economy.
• College educated workers have commanded a measurable
wage premium and are much less likely to become
unemployed than less educated workers.

8. 21st century:
• In recent years, universities have been criticized
for permitting or actively encouraging grade
inflation.
• Also, the supply of graduates in many fields of
study is exceeding the demand for their skills,
aggravating graduate
unemployment, underemployment, overqualificati
on, credentialism and educational inflation.
• Some commentators have suggested that
the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on
education is rapidly making certain aspects of the
traditional higher education system obsolete.

9. How does the European Union support higher
education in Europe?
• Sustained and substantive investment is required in order to turn
education into a driver of development.
• Authorities in Member States remain responsible for the way
higher education is organized and delivered in their countries.
• EU activities are designed to bring an additional international
dimension to studying, teaching, researching or making policy
in higher education.
• Through its Erasmus+ and Horizon 2020 programmes, the
European Union supports international exchanges for students,
academic staff and researchers, as well as structured cooperation
between higher education institutions and public authorities in
different countries.
• The objective is to create new opportunities for people in
higher education to learn from one another across national
borders and to work together on joint projects to develop
good learning and teaching, undertake excellent research and
promote innovation.

10. What is the European Commission doing?
• The European Commission works closely with policy-makers to support
the development of higher education policies in EU countries in line with
the Education and Training 2020 strategy (ET2020).
• The renewed EU agenda for higher education, adopted by the Commission in May
2017, identifies four key goals for European cooperation in higher education:
1. Tackling future skills mismatches and promoting excellence in skills development
2. Building inclusive and connected higher education systems
3. Ensuring higher education institutions contribute to innovation
4. Supporting effective and efficient higher education systems.
To help achieve each of these goals, the Commission proposes specific actions at EU-
level, primarily supported by different strands of the Erasmus+ and Horizon 2020
programmes. In particular, the European Commission supports:
1. the exchange of good policy practices between different countries through
the ET2020 higher education working group;
2. the Bologna Process, designed to promote the internationalisation of higher
education in Europe.
3. through more mobility, easier recognition of qualifications and streamlined
quality assurance mechanisms;
The development and use of mobility and recognition tools, such as the ECTS
system and the Diploma Supplement, to increase transparency and facility
exchanges in Europe.

11. Cont…
• Recently European Education Area, the European
Commission has taken a number of further initiatives:
• the concept of Networks of European Universities brings a
major change to higher education practices, through
integrated curricula and mobility, thus fostering quality,
excellence and innovation;
• the proposed Council recommendation on automatic
mutual recognition of higher education and school-leaving
diplomas helps to remove barriers to student mobility
within Europe;
• The future European Student Card will facilitate the secure
exchange of student information and reduce administrative
burden for higher education institutions, serving as a
concrete example of the emerging European Education Area.

12. Cont…
• Education and culture are essential to develop a more inclusive,
cohesive and competitive Europe.
• In 2017, at the Gothenburg Social Summit, the European
Commission laid out its vision for 2025 of a European
Education Area in which the free movement of learners is
guaranteed: “A continent where spending time in another
Member State – to study, to learn or to work – has become the
standard and where, in addition to one's mother tongue,
speaking two other languages has become the norm.
• A continent in which people have a strong sense of their identity
as Europeans, of Europe's cultural heritage and its diversity.”
• To take forward this work in the field of higher education, the
European Commission is currently working on three key
priorities that will boost mobility and student exchanges for
all:
1. A Network of European Universities
2. The automatic mutual recognition of diplomas
3. A European Student Card

13. Why does higher education matter?
• Higher education and its links with research and
innovation play a crucial role in individual and
societal development and in providing the highly
skilled human capital and the engaged citizens
that Europe needs to create jobs, economic
growth, and prosperity.
• Higher education institutions are crucial partners in
delivering the European Union's strategy to drive
forward and maintain sustainable growth.
• The Europe 2020 strategy has set a target that by
2020 40% of young Europeans have a higher
education qualification.

14. About education and training policies
• Each EU country is responsible for its own education and training systems. EU
policy in these fields is designed to support action at the national level and to help
address common challenges.
• How does the EU support education and training?
• EU policy in the fields of education and training is designed to support action at
the level of Member States – who remain responsible for these competence areas
– and to help address common challenges, such as ageing societies, skills deficits,
technological developments and competition at the global level.
• Education and training 2020 (ET 2020) is the EU framework for cooperation in
the fields of education and training. Beyond ET 2020, the EU also focuses its
efforts on creating policies and initiatives in the following areas:
• Early childhood education and care
• School policy
• Vocational Education and Training
• Adult learning
• Higher education
• International cooperation and policy dialogue
• Multilingualism
• Education and migrants

15. International cooperation and policy dialogue
• Besides the strong international focus of the Erasmus+ programme, the
Commission actively collaborates with non-EU countries in the fields of
education and training policy.
• EU priorities for higher education
• The European Union’s (EU) five main priorities in the field of higher
education are:
• To advance the EU as a centre of excellence in education and training
• To support partner countries outside the EU in their efforts to modernise
their education and training systems
• To promote common values and closer understanding between different
peoples and cultures
• To support higher education institutions in Member States and beyond in
their efforts to internationalise national education and training systems
• To improve the quality of education and training services in the EU and
beyond through mutual learning, comparison and the exchange of best
practices
• Ref: https://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/about-education-policies_en

16. How cooperation builds better global education
• Cooperation with non-EU Member States enhances the quality of education
and training in the EU and beyond by promoting peer learning and
comparative analysis between national education systems worldwide.
• It boosts innovation and job creation through mobility, and offers
opportunities for staff and students to broaden their horizons through
participation in EU programmes.
• Europe’s universities have a strong record of internationalization.
• They have facilitated the development of international curricula and joint
degrees, fostered international research and innovation projects, and
supported the exchange of students, staff and knowledge.
• This has all been made possible by the Bologna process, under which
European countries have agreed to restructure their higher education systems
to make cross-border cooperation more feasible and more effective.
• The EU’s international policy dialogues with countries outside Europe,
therefore, often draw on this expertise and experience of the need for
internationalisation to go hand in hand with policy reform.

17. Higher education in the United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Higher education in the United States is an optional stage of formal
learning following secondary education.
• Higher education is also referred as post-secondary education, third-stage,
third-level, or tertiary education.
• It covers stages 5 to 8 on the International ISCED 2011 scale. It is delivered
at 4,360 Title IV degree-granting institutions, known
as colleges or universities.
• These may be public or private universities, research universities, liberal arts
colleges, community colleges, or for-profit colleges. US higher education is
loosely regulated by the government and by several third-party
organizations.
• In 2021, US student loan debt amounts to more than $1.7 trillion.
• According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
and National Student Clearinghouse, college enrollment has declined every
year since a peak in 2010–2011 and is projected to continue declining or be
stagnant for the next two decades.
• The US is unique in its investment in highly competitive NCAA sports,
particularly in American football and basketball, with large sports stadiums
and arenas.

18. Timeline of key federal legislation:
• Morrill Act (1862 and 1890)
• Smith–Hughes Act or National Vocational Education
Act (1917)
• Federal Student Aid Program (1934–1943)
• G.I. Bill (1944)
• National Defense Education Act (1958)
• Higher Education Act (1965)
• Education Amendments (1972)
• CARES Act, Coronavirus Relief packages,
and American Rescue Plan (2020-2021)

19. 21st Century
• Online education: MOOCs and OPMs
• Online education has grown in the early 21st
century. More than 6.3 million students in the
U.S. took at least one online course in fall 2016.
• While online attendance has increased,
confidence among chief academic officers has
decreased from 70.8 percent in 2015 to 63.3
percent in 2016.
• In 2017, about 15% of all students attended
exclusively online, and competition for online
students has been increasing.

20. Functions
• Higher education has also served as a source for professional credentials, as a vehicle for social mobility, and as a social sorter..
• The college functions as a 'status marker', "signaling membership in the educated class, and a place to meet spouses of similar
status".
• Especially among students who move away from their families to attend residential-focused four-year colleges, the experience of
going away to college is seen as a rite of passage that produces young adults, irrespective of what they might learn in a classroom.
• The loss of these non-classroom experiences was the basis for some lawsuits filed after most campuses closed due to the COVID-
19 pandemic, and the desire for those experiences was one reason why schools were pressured to re-open campus life in the fall of
2020.
• In 2018, Universitas 21 (U21), the network of research-intensive universities, ranked the US first globally for overall higher
education, but only 15th when GDP was factored into the equation. Accounting for GDP, the top 10 nations for higher education
in 2018 were Finland, the United Kingdom, Serbia, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, Switzerland, South Africa, Israel and New
Zealand.
• Strong research funding helped 'elite American universities' dominate global rankings in the early 21st century, making them
attractive to international students, professors and researchers.
• Other countries, though, are offering incentives to compete for researchers, as funding is threatened in the US and US dominance
of international tables has lessened.
• The system has also been blighted by fly-by-night schools, diploma mills, visa mills, and predatory for-profit collegesT
• here have been some attempts to reform the system through federal policy such as gainful employment regulations, particularly
through the Department of Education's College Scorecard, which enables students to see the socio-economic diversity, SAT/ACT
scores, graduation rates, and average earnings and debt of graduates at all colleges.
• According to Pew Research Center and Gallup poll surveys, public opinion about colleges has been declining, especially
among Republicans and the white working class.
• The higher education industry has been criticized for being unnecessarily expensive, providing a difficult-to-measure service
which is seen as vital but in which providers are paid for inputs instead of outputs, which is beset with federal regulations that
drive up costs, and payments coming from third parties, not users.
• In a 2018 Pew survey, 61 percent of those polled said that US higher education was headed in the wrong direction.
• A 2019 Gallup survey found that, among graduates who strongly felt a purpose in life was important, "only 40 percent said they
had found a meaningful career after college.

21. Types of colleges and universities
• The term "college" refers to one of three types of education institutions: stand-alone higher-level education institutions that are not components of a
university.
1. community colleges
2. liberal arts colleges
3. a college within a university, mostly the undergraduate institution of a university.
• Almost all colleges and universities are coeducational.
• term "college" refers to one of three types of education institutions: stand-alone higher-level education institutions that are not components of a
university.
• Universities are educational institutions with undergraduate and graduate programs. For historical reasons, some universities have retained the
term college instead of "university" for their name. Graduate programs grant a variety of master's degrees (like the Master of Arts (M.A.), Master of
Science (M.S.), Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) or Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)) in addition to doctorates such as the Ph.D.
• The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education distinguishes among institutions on the basis of the prevalence of degrees they grant
and considers the granting of master's degrees necessary
• Some universities have professional schools. Examples include journalism school, business school, medical schools, pharmacy schools (Pharm.D.),
and dental schools. A common practice is to refer to these disparate faculties within universities as colleges or schools.
• The American university system is largely decentralized. Public universities are administered by the individual states and territories, usually as part
of a state university system. Except for the United States service academies and staff colleges, the federal government does not directly regulate
universities. However, it can offer federal grants and any institution that receives federal funds must certify that it has adopted and implemented a
drug prevention program that meets federal regulations.
• Community colleges are often two-year colleges. They have open admissions, usually with lower tuition fees than other state or private
schools. Graduates earn associate degrees, such as an Associate of Arts (AA).
• Liberal arts colleges:
• Four-year institutions emphasizing the liberal arts are liberal arts colleges. They traditionally emphasize interactive instruction. They are known for
being residential and for having smaller enrollment and lower student-to-faculty ratios than universities. Most are private, although there are public
liberal arts colleges. Some offer experimental curricula.
• For-profit colleges: For-profit higher education (known as for-profit college or proprietary education) refers to higher education institutions
operated by private, profit-seeking businesses. Students were "attracted to the programs for their ease of enrollment and help obtaining financial
aid," but "disappointed with the poor quality of education...."[100][101] University of Phoenix has been the largest for-profit college in the
US.[102] Since 2010, for-profit colleges have received greater scrutiny from the US government, state Attorneys General, the media, and
scholars.[103] Notable business failures include Corinthian Colleges (2015), ITT Educational Services (2016), Education Management
Corporation also known as EDMC (2017), and Education Corporation of America (2018).[104] Two large schools, Kaplan University and Ashford
University were sold to public universities with for-profit online program managers and rebranded as Purdue University Global and University of
Arizona Global Campus

22. Funding of universities and colleges in the US Education system
• Sources of funds: US colleges and universities receive their funds from
many sources, including tuition, federal Title IV funds, state funds, and
endowments.
• State government : eg; with a population nearly 40 million, the state of
California allocates more than $15 billion on higher education.
• Institutional donors and endowments
• Private institutions tend to be more reliant on private giving.
Harvard University $40.9 billion
University of Texas $30.88 billion
Princeton University $25.9 billion
• Student costs and funding
• Grants, scholarships, loans and work study programs
• Student loans can be divided into two categories: federal student loans
and private student loans. Federal student loans may be:
1. subsidized Stafford Loans
2. unsubsidized Stafford Loans
3. Direct Loans
4. PLUS Loans

23. Higher Education in Africa
• State of Higher Education in Africa
• In 2018, there were 1,682 universities in Africa, up from 784 in 2000
and 294 in 1980. Clearly, higher education has experienced explosive
growth.
• According to the latest UNESCO Science Report 2021, Africa spends
only 0.59% of GDP on research and development, compared to a
world average of 1.79%.
• How many Universities are there in Africa?
• According to the uniRank database in 2020 there are
currently 1,225 officially recognized higher-education institutions in
Africa. Considering that the uniRank database includes a total
number of 13,723 officially recognized higher education institutions
the proportion of African Universities in the world is as follows:
– uniRank African Universities World Representation Index: 8.9%

24. Cont…
• According to the latest UNESCO Science Report 2021, Africa spends only
0.59% of GDP on research and development, compared to a world average
of 1.79%.
Not surprisingly, it accounts for a mere 1.01% of global research and
development expenditures, 2.50% of global researchers and 3.50% of
scholarly publications, compared to 45.7%, 44.5% and 48.0%, respectively
for a region such as Asia.
The entire African continent, with a population of 1.3 billion, produces
fewer scholarly publications than Canada (3.60%), with a population of 37.7
million!
The data for the cutting-edge fields of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR)
(artificial intelligence androbotics, biotechnology, energy, materials,
nanoscience and nanotech and opto-electronics) is even more abysmal.
Fifth, infrastructure is often suboptimal. Physical facilities do not always
match growth in enrolments and academic programmes, and deferred
maintenance is rampant.

25. • Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved the new National
Education Policy (NEP), 2020 with an aim to introduce several
changes in the Indian education system - from the school to college
level.
• The NEP 2020 aims at making “India a global knowledge
superpower”.
• The Cabinet has also approved the renaming of the Ministry of
Human Resource Development to the Ministry of Education.
• The NEP cleared by the Cabinet is only the third major revamp of
the framework of education in India since independence.
– The two earlier education policies were brought in 1968 and
1986.

26. Education In India
• Constitutional Provisions:
 Part IV of Indian Constitution, Article 45 and Article 39 (f) of Directive Principles of State
Policy (DPSP), has a provision for state-funded as well as equitable and accessible education.
 The 42nd Amendment to the Constitution in 1976 moved education from the State to
the Concurrent List.
 The education policies by the Central government provides a broad direction and state
governments are expected to follow it. But it is not mandatory, for instance Tamil Nadu does
not follow the three-language formula prescribed by the first education policy in 1968.
 The 86th Amendment in 2002 made education an enforceable right under Article 21-A.
• Related Laws:
– Right To Education (RTE) Act, 2009 aims to provide primary education to all children aged 6
to 14 years and enforces education as a Fundamental Right.
• It also mandates 25% reservation for disadvantaged sections of the society where
disadvantaged groups
• Government Initiatives:
– Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Mid Day Meal Scheme, Navodaya Vidyalayas (NVS schools), Kendriya
Vidyalayas (KV schools) and use of IT in education are a result of the NEP of 1986.

27. Cont…
• An autonomous body, the National Educational Technology
Forum (NETF), will be created to provide a platform for
the free exchange of ideas on the use of technology to
enhance learning, assessment, planning, administration.
• National Assessment Centre- 'PARAKH' has been created to
assess the students.
• It also paves the way for foreign universities to set up
campuses in India.
• It emphasizes setting up of Gender Inclusion Fund, Special
Education Zones for disadvantaged regions and groups.
• National Institute for Pali, Persian and Prakrit, Indian
Institute of Translation and Interpretation to be set up.
• It also aims to increase the public investment in the
Education sector to reach 6% of GDP at the earliest.
• Currently, India spends around 4.6 % of its total GDP on
education.

28. Transforming Curricular& Pedagogical structure- India under New
national Education Policy-2020

29. School Education:-India
• Universalization of education from preschool to
secondary level with 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio
(GER) in school education by 2030.
• To bring 2 crore out of school children back into the
mainstream through an open schooling system.
• The current 10+2 system to be replaced by a
new 5+3+3+4 curricular structure corresponding
to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years respectively.
• It will bring the uncovered age group of 3-6
years under school curriculum, which has been
recognized globally as the crucial stage for
development of mental faculties of a child.
• It will also have 12 years of schooling with three years
of Anganwadi/ pre schooling.

30. Cont…
• Class 10 and 12 board examinations to be made easier, to test core
competencies rather than memorised facts, with all students allowed
to take the exam twice.
• School governance is set to change, with a new accreditation framework
and an independent authority to regulate both public and private schools.
• Emphasis on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, no rigid separation
between academic streams, extracurricular, vocational streams in schools.
• Vocational Education to start from Class 6 with Internships.
• Teaching up to at least Grade 5 to be in mother tongue/regional
language. No language will be imposed on any student.
• Assessment reforms with 360 degree Holistic Progress Card, tracking
Student Progress for achieving Learning Outcomes
• A new and comprehensive National Curriculum Framework for Teacher
Education (NCFTE) 2021, will be formulated by the National Council for
Teacher Education (NCTE) in consultation with National Council of
Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
– By 2030, the minimum degree qualification for teaching will be a 4-year
integrated B.Ed. degree.

31. Higher Education:-India
 Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education to be raised to 50% by 2035. Also, 3.5 crore seats to be added in
higher education.
 The current Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education is 26.3%.
 Holistic Undergraduate education with a flexible curriculum can be of 3 or 4 years with multiple exit options and
appropriate certification within this period.
 M.Phil courses will be discontinued and all the courses at undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD level will now be
interdisciplinary.
 Academic Bank of Credits to be established to facilitate Transfer of Credits.
 Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities (MERUs), at par with IITs, IIMs, to be set up as models
of best multidisciplinary education of global standards in the country.
 The National Research Foundation will be created as an apex body for fostering a strong research culture and
building research capacity across higher education.
 Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) will be set up as a single umbrella body for the entire higher
education, excluding medical and legal education. Public and private higher education institutions will be
governed by the same set of norms for regulation, accreditation and academic standards. Also, HECI will be
having four independent verticals namely,
 National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC) for regulation,
 General Education Council (GEC) for standard setting,
 Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) for funding,
 National Accreditation Council (NAC) for accreditation.
 Affiliation of colleges is to be phased out in 15 years and a stage-wise mechanism to be established for granting
graded autonomy to colleges.
 Over a period of time, every college is expected to develop into either an autonomous degree-granting
College, or a constituent college of a university.

32. National education policy in India-2020
 A New Education Policy aims to facilitate an inclusive, participatory and holistic approach, which takes into
consideration field experiences, empirical research, stakeholder feedback, as well as lessons learned from
best practices.
 It is a progressive shift towards a more scientific approach to education. The prescribed structure will help
to cater the ability of the child – stages of cognitive development as well as social and physical awareness.
If implemented in its true vision, the new structure can bring India at par with the leading countries of the
world.
 The New Education Policy (NEP) focusses on re-orientation of school and higher education in India and
inculcation of research-based studies and innovation in our education.
 However, the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) has already been doing this on the ground
for years and hence is in tune with the objectives of the NEP.
 As part of its focus on innovation and research-based learning, the ICAR-Agricultural University (AU)
system, through its network of 74 universities, offers degree courses at the undergraduate level in
11disciplines with emphasis on learning through hands-on-practice sessions and field experience
training.
 As desired by the NEP, the postgraduate programmes in 96 disciplines and Ph.D. programmes in 73
disciplines make it multi-disciplinary.
 The AU system has generated the much-needed scientists, technologists, teachers, researchers,
technologies and technology transfer systems to transform India from a “ship-to-mouth” nation to a
“right-to-food” one.
 Much in line with the aspirations of the NEP, the curricula has been responsible for developing much-
needed agricultural skills and encouraging an entrepreneurial mindset among the students.
 They are being inspired to take up self-employment, to sustainably enhance rural livelihood security, and
to propel agricultural transformation through science-based policy-options and actions.

33. Agricultural Education Policy to be Aligned with National
Education Policy (NEP) 2020:
 First National Agricultural Education Policy is set to
bring academic credit banks and degree programmes
with multiple entry and exit options to the 74
universities focussed on crop sciences, fisheries,
veterinary and dairy training and research.

34. Top ten countries with the best education
systems in the world 2020
Top 10 Best Countries for Education
2020 2019
1.
The United States The United Kingdom
2.
The United Kingdom The United States
3.
Canada Canada
4.
Germany Germany
5.
France France
6.
Switzerland Australia
7.
Australia Switzerland
8.
Sweden Sweden
9.
The Netherlands Japan
10
. Denmark The Netherlands

35. READY (Rural Entrepreneurship Awareness Development
Yojana) programme
 The Student READY (Rural Entrepreneurship Awareness
Development Yojana) programme ensures hands-on
experience and practical training, as does the
Entrepreneurship Development and Business Management
course.
 Rigorous implementation of the revised curricula has over
the years been benefitting local communities, and
promoting technology incubation and dissemination, which
is one of the objectives of the NEP.
 Many new courses have been already introduced by the AUs
in emerging fields like Precision Farming, Hi-tech Cultivation,
Artificial Intelligence, Mechatronics, Nanotechnology, Food
Storage Engineering, Emerging Food Processing Technologies
and soon which align perfectly with the recommendations of
the NEP.

36. Thank you