Record move: Jamshedpur Women’s College

Jamshedpur, July 15: The Union ministry of human resource development will soon form a comprehensive database on all colleges in India, including Jharkhand, with details such as number of students, faculty members, courses, among others.

The ministry has directed the University Grants Commission (UGC) to take the first step in the massive all-India exercise of data collection by sending letters to colleges, asking them to nominate a nodal officer in each cradle to undertake the survey at the institution level. National University of Education Planning and Administration, New Delhi, will finally compile the data.

A taskforce steered by additional secretary (higher education, HRD ministry) Sunil Kumar has been constituted to oversee the survey to be carried out this month. The format is on the HRD ministry website. Colleges need to download it, fill it up and send it to UGC’s chief statistical officer.

Universities of Jharkhand have hailed the move. “Generally, we don’t have compiled data of various aspects of colleges in detail. As companies approach us for recruiting students, a database will help us select suitable students and refer them to the firms concerned. But it should be updated regularly to stay useful,” said Ranchi University pro-vice chancellor V.P. Sharan.

Kolhan University, which has received UGC’s letter on July 8, has welcomed the move. “Creating a database will not only help the ministry, but records will help varsities and colleges in administration and monitoring,” said vice chancellor Salil Kumar Roy.

Colleges have to name a nominee, preferably a faculty member, from departments such as statistics, mathematics or management to the UGC within 15 days of receiving the letter. Though the last date of sending nominations was June 25, college authorities claimed they received letters around July 8.