New Scheme for Higher Education : Paramarsh

The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has launched a new scheme “Paramarsh” for improving the quality of higher education in India.

What is Paramarsh?

• The Paramarsh is a university grants commission (UGC) scheme for mentoring the National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) aspirant institutes to promote Quality Education in Higher Education scenario of India.
• This scheme will be a paradigm shift as it enables the concept of mentoring of an institution by another well-performing institution.
• The Scheme will have a Hub & Spoke model. A model Mentor Institution called the Hub is centralized and will have the responsibility of guiding the Mentee institution through the secondary branches the Spoke .
• The Hub will provide services for self-improvement of spoke institutes.
• This model allows for centralized control over operational efficiency, improves resource utilization to attain overall development of the mentee institution.
• The other institute will help the aspirant institute to upgrade their academic performance in subjects being taught.
• It will also enable them to get accredited by focusing in the area of curricular aspects, teaching-learning & evaluation, research, innovation, institutional values & practices, etc.
• Paramarsh is expected to impact majorly in addressing the main national challenge of improving the quality of Higher Education in India.
• The Paramarsh scheme initially aims to target 1000 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) for mentoring.
• There will be a directed focus on quality as stated in the UGC Quality Mandate .

Who will benefit?

The Mentor-Mentee relationship is expected to only benefit both the institutions but it will also provide quality education to over 3.6 crore students who have enrolled in the Indian Higher Education system currently.