The regional meeting on revision of ICAR Model Act for Higher Agricultural Educational Institutions has suggested uniformity in the administrative set up of all State Agricultural Universities (SAU) and stressed the need for improvement in the quality of education.
A high power committee headed by S.S. Chahal, former Vice-Chancellor of Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology in Udaipur, held a brainstorming session on the issue as part of the meeting jointly organised by Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) and Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) here on Monday. The session focussed on on suitable amendments to the ICAR Model Act on governance in university system to improve agricultural education in SAUs as well as private agricultural colleges in the country, officials of the PJTSAU said.
Mr. Chahal highlighted the need for uniformity in SAU administration and ICAR deputy director general (education) N.S. Rathore emphasised the need to link quality education in the universities with the release of grants from ICAR.
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Integration
Further, Mr. Rathore suggested there was need for integrating teaching, research and extension in agricultural universities in the country. PJTSAU Vice-Chancellor V. Praveen Rao said quality of faculty in agricultural universities should be on par with international standards.
The meeting also discussed issues related to ensuring minimum standards for agricultural universities and colleges, uniformity in minimum eligibility criteria for admission to UG, PG and Ph.D. programmes in public and private colleges.
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Functional autonomy
Uniformity in nomenclature of university officers, functional autonomy of statutory committees, suggestive guidelines for public funding by State governments and ICAR for operational spending and were also discussed in detail. Officials also talked about guidelines for research and sponsored research from public organisations and private firms.
The high power committee also comprises Mr. Rathore, Mr. Praveen Rao, V.S. Thomar, N.C. Goutham, Venkateswarlu and A. Padmaraju.