GUWAHATI, March 7 � The Assam Government has requested the Centre to introduce a Higher Education Mission in the country in the lines of Sarba Shiksha Abhijan Mission for improvement of the higher education sector.
Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told The Assam Tribune that introduction of such a mission would help in improvement of the overall standard of higher education in the country. He also demanded that the Centre should provide funds to the state universities through the University Grants Commission (UGC) .
Sarma pointed out that though the State Government has been providing annual grants to the state universities, there is a huge gap between the grants received by the Central and State Universities. The Central universities are getting substantial amount of grants directly from the Centre and it is not possible for the state government to provide such a huge amount to the state universities. The Centre should provide additional grants to the state universities to bridge the gap between the central and state universities, he added. He also said that the Union Human Resource Development Minister has assured to consider the proposal of the state government.
The Education Minister said that the facilities available in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) are much better than the state run engineering colleges. He pointed out that this disparity would also be reduced if the Centre agrees to launch a higher education mission.
Sarma said that during the recent meeting on minority education in New Delhi, he demanded setting up of a branch of either Jamia Milia University or Aligarh Muslim University in the state and hoped that the demand would be considered favourably by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry.
