Hyderabad: University Grants Commission to launch re-designed website today

Hyderabad : The University Grants Commission (UGC) is to launch its re-designed website on Monday to make it more user-friendly, informative and dynamic. The new changes have been brought in line with NEP-2020 to support universities and colleges to transform higher education into word class education.

According to UGC chairman M Jagadesh Kumar, "UGC is framing regulations and working as a facilitator to make higher education institutions impart quality education to create a skilful, innovative young generation." It was in line with this idea that the UGC has re-designed its website; all information has been categorised as per the type of stakeholders, such as students, faculty, and universities. It helps to ease getting information.

The home page covers key initiatives, student corners, faculty corners and information about different types of universities, dashboards and e-governance portals of UGC initiatives and schemes.

The stakeholders can easily access notices, circulars and regulations. They are according to the type of stakeholders. Finding university details is easy on the website; it has more filter facilities for users to sort higher educational institutions (HEIs) as per their requirements. Similarly, users can visit details of UGC bureaus and contact information of the bureau head and other officials. UGC digital initiatives are highlighted to access directly.

Similarly, the apex higher education regulator is to launch UTSAH (Undertaking Transformative Strategies and Actions in Higher Education) portal, to motivate, implement and monitor the progress.

Jagdish Kumar said the portal is meant to effectively track and support the implementation of NEP and its strategic initiatives across HEIs in the country. After extensive consultations with stakeholders, including institutions, universities, colleges, IITs, NITs and INIs, UGC is launching the UTSAH portal on Monday, he added.

The portal will serve as a comprehensive platform providing detailed information about UGC initiatives for qualitative reforms in higher education. It will also serve as a repository for regulations, guidelines and frameworks issued by UGC, ensuring easy accessibility for all stakeholders.

The portal will track outputs and outcomes across essential fields such as learner-centric education, digital learning, industry-institute collaboration, academic research, internationalisation and the Indian Knowledge System. Through the portal HEIs will provide valuable insights into their efforts and progress in these thrust areas, contributing to the overall enhancement of the higher education landscape. It will provide comprehensive and reliable data that will aid in informed policy-making, future planning, and the overall growth of the higher education sector. The UGC anticipates the launch of the portal as a significant milestone in the journey towards accessible, equitable, inclusive and quality education in the country.

That apart a Professors of Practice (PoP) portal will also be launched for engaging distinguished experts from various fields by academic institutions to provide students with exposure to their in-depth experience in the profession. It is in line with the NEP. In line with the policy direction, UGC has introduced a new teaching post titled 'Professor of Practice' for HEIs by bringing practitioners, policymakers, skilled professionals into the higher education system.

A PoP portal will facilitate institutions to get experienced professional experts in the required area and handholding between experts and academic institutions. The experts can register themselves by giving their experience and expertise on the portal. The institutions can advertise the PoP vacancies and see profiles of registered experts and engage them, Jagdish Kumar said.