University Education in India

About University in India

University

The universities offer students the skills and knowledge they will need to work in a large number of different environments. The Indian Universities offer various courses in the following disciplines.

Engineering and Technology
Computer Sciences, Information Technology, Biotechnology and Bio-informatics
Medical, Dental, Nursing, Pharmacy and Paramedical
Agriculture/Veterinary Sciences, Dairy Technology and Fisheries
Arts & Fine Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Commerce, Science and Management
Hotel Management & Catering Technology, Travel and Tourism
Fashion Design & Technology

The universities in India are of various kinds such as single or multi faculty, teaching or affiliating, teaching cum affiliating, and single campus or multi campus. Normally, most of the universities are affiliating universities, which prescribe the instruction of the courses to the affiliated colleges while they hold the responsibility of conducting the examinations and awarding the degrees. The colleges in India are not empowered to award degrees and therefore have to seek affiliation with a university. The universities are set up both by the Central and the State Governments.

University Grants Commission

The University Grants Commission was established in 1952 in order to evaluate and maintain standards in universities. It was constituted as a statutory body under an Act of Parliament in 1956. The UGC is the only grant-giving agency in the country that has been vested with two responsibilities such as providing funds and coordination, and determining and maintaining of standards in institutions of higher education. The UGC's mandate includes:

Promoting and coordinating university education;
Determining and maintaining standards of teaching, examination and research in universities;
Framing regulations on minimum standards of education;
Monitoring developments in the field of college and university education, and disbursing grants to the universities and colleges;
Serving as a vital link between the Union and State Governments and institutions of higher learning;
Advising the Central and the State Governments on the measures necessary for improvement of university education;
Conferring autonomous status on selected colleges;
Providing detailed guidelines for affiliation of colleges with a university.

Professional / Higher Education

The higher or the professional education is the education provided by universities, vocational universities such as the community colleges, the liberal arts colleges, and the technical colleges apart from other collegial institutions that award academic degrees, such as career colleges. The higher education in India has evolved in distinct and divergent streams with each stream monitored by an apex body, indirectly controlled by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Most of the professional education is included within higher education, and many postgraduate qualifications are vocational or professional oriented. The higher or the professional education in various disciplines is given below.

Sciences