Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has developed a five-year action plan named EQUIP (Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme). The project is made to bring transformation in the higher education system in the upcoming 5 years.
This action-plan is under-development of 5 experts-
- Hasmukh Adhia- Former Revenue Secretary
- Amitabh Kant- NITI Aayog CEO
- K Vijay Raghavan- Former- Principal Scientific Advisor
- Ajit Balakrishnan- Rediff Founder
- Kris Gopalakrishnan- Infosys CEO
B Venkatesh Kumar, national co-coordinator for Rashtriya Ucchtar Shiksha Abhiyan has been chosen as the coordinator for EQUIP.
Each of the experts have their group that works separately on different matters.
The core group headed by Adhia focused on ‘expanding access’ and has drawn up a plan to double gross enrollment ratio to 52 by 2024. It also stressed on doubling and tripling enrollment of SCs/STs, respectively and ensuring geographically backward groups catch up with the national average.
The group led by Kant has devised a plan for internationalisation of institutes, so as to facilitate admission of atleast 10% international students across premier institutes, firming up policy for foreign universities in India and promoting international academic collaborations.
Ten expert groups from their team have presented draft plans on various issues specific to higher education after a three-day brainstorming boot camp at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) Mussorie from April 22-24.