3-yr courses in retail, logistics, healthcare, tourism and hospitality to be started from this session. Skill embedded degree courses will be started from academic session 2023-24 at 113 colleges of Uttar Pradesh shortlisted by the state government. The state government has entered into an agreement with the New Delhi headquartered Center for Research in Schemes and Policies (CRISP) in January this year with an aim to bring about a radical change in higher education in UP in a systematic manner, said director (higher education) Brahm Dev. Under the initiative, skill-based three-year BBA/BSc degree courses in retail, logistics, healthcare as well as tourism and hospitality designed by CRISP will be started in these 113 government-run, government-aided and unaided colleges spread across 47 districts of UP, he added.
UP special secretary (higher education) Girijesh Kumar Tyagi has sent a missive to the vice-chancellors of all state universities of UP, directing them to complete all the formalities for conducting these courses at the earliest. Vice-chancellors have been advised through the letter, a copy of which is with HT, that the respective universities can give an in-principle approval or provisional affiliation for the identified colleges and the degree courses to be started. After completion of all formalities, regular approval or affiliation can be given to the colleges and courses concerned.
The 113 colleges selected under this initiative are a maximum 10 of Lucknow, 8 of Gautam Buddha Nagar, 7 of Ghaziabad, 6 each of Meerut and Kanpur Nagar, 5 each of Agra, Varanasi and Gorakhpur, 4 of Bareilly, 3 each of Aligarh, Bijnor, Farrukhabad, Muzaffarnagar and Prayagraj, 2 each of Ayodhya, Ambedkar Nagar, Banda, Hardoi, Lalitpur, Moradabad, Rampur, Rae Bareli and Saharanpur besides 1 each of Amroha, Azamgarh, Bahraich, Balrampur, Ballia, Bhadoi, Bulandshahr, Chandauli, Chitrakoot, Deoria, Fatehpur, Firozabad, Ghazipur, Hamirpur, Jhansi, Kannauj, Kanpur, Kaushambi, Kushinagar, Lakhimpur Kheri, Mathura, Mau, Sitapur and Unnao. CRISP is an organisation set up by a group of civil servants and those in public service with more than three decades of experience. On its official website, it lists making Uttar Pradesh the best destination for higher education under the flagship of Project for Excellence in Higher Learning and Education in UP (PEHLE - UP) as its key mission.
It plans to onboard 1,000 colleges of Uttar Pradesh for skill-based courses to increase the employability of students, streamline the processes for sector skill councils as well as colleges and declare a plan of action to make a credit transfer mechanism for students. To narrow down the gap between schools and higher education institutions of Uttar Pradesh by increasing the interaction between them and gain NAAC accreditation for all universities in the next three years as well as have at least 25% of colleges accredited by NAAC within the next 3 years are also among its mission goals.
