Kashmir Impulse Desk
Jammu, Nov 4
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday set a six-month deadline for universities in Jammu and Kashmir to implement the Design Your Degree (DYD) programme, calling for sweeping reforms in higher education.
Chairing a meeting of the Jammu and Kashmir Higher Education Council (JKHEC) at Lok Bhavan, Sinha stressed the need to redesign undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in line with the DYD framework and the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The meeting, attended by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Higher Education Minister Shamim Firdous, council Vice Chairman Professor Dinesh Singh, vice-chancellors of universities and heads of premier institutions, discussed measures to improve academic standards, research and innovation.
The council also discussed sharing academic credits, research laboratories and institutional resources to strengthen collaboration among universities.
Sinha said transforming higher education in J&K into a comprehensive and forward-looking system was a shared responsibility.
“The time has now come to translate Higher Education Council initiatives into tangible achievements, while ensuring that every student benefits from outcome-oriented asset utilisation,” he said.
He called for stronger collaboration between universities, saying successful implementation of reforms would require institutional restructuring and a long-term strategy.
The meeting also discussed setting up a task force to integrate artificial intelligence, including machine learning and deep learning, and data science into undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
Sinha stressed the need to incorporate local languages and cultures into academic programmes while preparing students for emerging technologies.
Prof Dinesh Singh called for policy directives to align undergraduate and postgraduate curricula with the DYD framework.
Vice-chancellors and council members presented their suggestions on implementing the DYD programme and NEP 2020 reforms.
The council also reviewed ongoing higher education initiatives, engineering kitchens, entrepreneurship programmes, budgetary allocations and reforms in the fund distribution mechanism.
Among those attending were the vice-chancellors of the universities of Jammu and Kashmir, Islamic University of Science and Technology, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, both SKUAST campuses, Central University of Kashmir, Central University of Jammu, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University and cluster universities of Jammu and Srinagar.
Directors of IIT Jammu, IIM Jammu and NIT Srinagar, along with representatives of IIT Bombay and Delhi University, also attended.
