‘Paramarsh Scheme’ of the University Grants Commission (UGC) is expecting to receive around 100 proposals from the higher education institutions.
As part of the Paramarsh scheme top institutions will mentor five non-accredited institutes to secure National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) grade.
According to a UGC official ,”The last date for submitting proposals by the mentors is September 2. These will then be examined.”
“Once the proposals are accepted by the UGC, the institutes can start the mentoring programme within a month,” the official added.
The scheme directs that the mentor institutions should have secured an NAAC score of 3.26 out of 4.
Human Resource Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, who launched the scheme last month, said it would improve quality and standards of higher education in the country.
What is Paramarsh Scheme :
Objective: To mentor National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) accreditation aspirant institutions for promoting quality assurance in higher education.
The scheme will be initiated through a “Hub & Spoke” model wherein the Mentor Institution is called the “Hub” is centralized and will have the responsibility of guiding the Mentee institution through the secondary branches the “Spoke” i.e. through the services provided to the mentee for self improvement.
This will allow a centralized control over operational efficiency, resource utilization to attain overall development of the mentee institution.
The official noted that since securing NAAC accreditation has been made mandatory for the open universities too, the top institutions can also mentor open universities which will be applying for NAAC grade for the first time. Under the ‘Paramarsh’ scheme, the leading institutions will provide regular mentoring to help colleges to get accredited by the NAACA.
The mentor institutions will be given a financial assistance of up to Rs. 30 lakh. There is also an option of appointing an expert who can be paid a fellowship amount of Rs. 31,000 per month.
“The scheme will lead to enhancement of the mentee institutions’ quality and its profile as a result of improved quality of research, teaching and learning methodologies. The mentee institution will also have increased exposure and speedier adaptation to best practices,” the official added.
Duration of the project is one year and it can be extended upto 2 years.