State is moving towards permitting ‘cluster universities’, says Min Tawde

The Maharashtra government was moving towards giving permission to “cluster universities” in which students would be able to get degrees in multiple disciplines, state Education Minister Vinod Tawde on Sunday said.

“The Maharashtra government is now heading towards giving permission for cluster universities. About 10-12 cluster universities would start functioning in the state in the near future and students would get multi-disciplinary degrees,” Tawde said while addressing the media at the Shivaji University-Kolhapur campus here.

As per the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development's Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA)-National Higher Education Mission, a cluster university is one that gets created after converting colleges in close proximity to form one unit.

The minister said that one of the distinctive features of these cluster universities would be a choice-based credit system (CBCS).

As per the Union HRD ministry, the CBCS will enable students to take courses of their choice, learn at their own pace, undergo additional courses and acquire more than the required credits, and adopt an interdisciplinary approach to learning.

Tawde attacked Left Front parties for their criticism of the state government's policy of allowing non-government entities to adopt schools that had less number of students.