Vikas Bhavan, which houses the education department, in Patna. Telegraph picture

The education department in its effort to bring transparency in financial matters is planning to keep a track of the income and expenditure of all the varsities in the state.

At a meeting held by education department secretary S. Shiv Kumar and attended by the vice-chancellors and registrars of different universities, the department proposed an integrated financial management plan where in universities would submit their income and expenditure details to the department and also upload the data on a website which would be created specifically for the purpose. The vice-chancellors and registrars have been asked provide their views on the proposal within three days.

Shiv Kumar told The Telegraph: “Various topics were discussed at the meeting, including ways to improve the financial status of universities and also measures to be taken for students’ benefits.”

All the varisites have been directed to give point-wise status on revised and unrevised salaries of their teachers and non-teaching staff from January 1, 2006 to March 1, 2012.

Education department principal secretary Anjani Kumar Singh also sought report on promotions given to university employees between January 1, 2006 to March 1, 2012 so that the department can initiate the process of obtaining 80 per cent funds from University Grants Commission in time.

Officers and academics present at the meeting also discussed the provision of a unique identity card for students containing all the essential details of the individual. The department officers stressed that steps should be taken by university administrations to facilitate timely results and transfer certificates of students. All these systems should be developed electronically and there should also be centralised database for all the universities, the officers suggested.

Sources said once the centralised database is set up, it would be easy for the colleges and universities to share documents and reports.

The education department secretary said university heads have been asked to develop virtual classroom mechanism, which is a part of the National Knowledge Network (NKN).

The NKN is a part of the Union government’s National Knowledge Commission project, which was first mooted in 2007. The commission aims at setting up a network of premier colleges and universities, putting learning material online and sharing expertise of centres of excellence with institutes spread across the country.

The purpose behind NKN is to build quality institutions with state-of-the-art research facilities, which in turn will help create a pool of highly trained workforce.

The NKN is the brainchild project of Union human resources development minister Kapil Sibal. Under the system, all the universities will be will be connected online. This will not only help students share information with their counterparts in other colleges but also address the issue of insufficient strength of teachers in various universities.

Elaborating on the NKN project, a teacher of Patna University said: “NKN will address to the issue of virtual classroom, making it possible for a student sitting in BN College to attend a lecture being delivered at Patna Science College.”