The education department would convene a meeting of registrars of all universities on Saturday to discuss the parameters for implementation of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (Rusa) and also on actual vacancies of teachers in universities.

Rusa is a centrally sponsored scheme aimed at reforming the state higher education system.

Senior officials of the education department, including department principal secretary Amarjeet Sinha and higher education director Sitaram Singh would be among participants in the meeting. However, the universities are in an uncomfortable situation as they received the letter from the department quite late.

Patna University registrar Balram Tiwari said: “The university received the letter on November 20 and preparing development plans at such a short notice is quite difficult.”

Tiwari added that according to the letter, the meeting would discuss about colleges and universities’ development plan under Rusa.

The varsity administration has forwarded the letter to different colleges to prepare their development plans but till now, no college has submitted its development plan to the university, as it is not possible for colleges to prepare the development plan in such a short time.

Under Rusa, states would be funded on the basis of plans of higher education they chalk out. The funding under Rusa would be norm-based and future grants would be outcome-dependent.

However, higher education director Sitaram Singh said: “We have asked all the universities to submit their development plans by November 15 but till now, none has submitted those. The department was left with no other option but to convene the meeting on November 23.”

He added that the meeting would focus on seeking college development plans from universities, what they have done in five years and what their plans are for the next five years.

The education department would seek information regarding actual vacancies existing in their universities, popular courses they run and students’ strength in all departments apart from actual vacancies, which would be filled up through Bihar Public Service Commission.

After a gap of nearly 10 years, the state government would conduct teachers’ recruitment in Bihar universities. There are around 3,400 vacancies of permanent positions of teachers in the universities and recruitment has been on hold since 2003.

Sources said the education department has asked the universities to focus and give importance to courses such as management, computer, biotechnology and other new subjects, which are much in demand, would be given preference in recruitment of teachers.