The state government has presented the much-awaited Bill that will clear the decks for student council elections in universities and colleges.
Maharashtra’s higher education minister Vinod Tawde, on Monday night presented the Bill ‘to Provide for academic autonomy and excellence, adequate representation through democratic process, transformation, strengthening and regulating higher education’ in the State Assembly.
Discussion on the Bill is likely to begin only on the last day of the state legislature and it may have to wait till the budget session in March 2016 to be passed.
The state government had appointed several committees in the past to consider and make recommendations on different aspects of higher education and learning. The new Bill is aimed at more effective regulation of non-agricultural and non-medical universities.
It recommends establishing Maharashtra State Commission for Higher Education and Development and proposes to repeal the Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994.
Among the important suggestions in the Bill, restarting students’ council elections in universities and colleges is one of the major decisions, which is likely to attract diverse views from across party lines.
Student elections were stopped in Mumbai a member of the Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) from Mithibai College was stabbed to death in 1989. The proposed Bill recommends students’ council at the university and college levels. Only full-time students will be allowed to vote and contest.
The council at both the university and college level will consist of a president, a secretary, one woman representative, one representative belonging to SC/ST/NT/OBC or de-notified tribes elected from students in all university departments. Also, each department will elect one representative each. Four students will be nominated by the vice-chancellor.
Elected students will appoint representatives for the university students’ association and from those, a students’ council will be chosen. The president and secretary of the council will also be a part of the senate, the topmost authority of the university.
If passed, the bill will clear decks for student council elections in universities
