The Maharashtra government will make it mandatory for students above 18 years of age to get their voter registration done for getting admission to colleges, a state minister has said.
Speaking at a meeting of vice chancellors of non-agriculture universities at the Raj Bhavan in Mumbai on Thursday, state Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil also said that the government will introduce four-year degree courses from June 2023 as mandated under the National Education Policy (NEP) and the universities will have to implement the decision.
The government will soon constitute a committee of retired vice-chancellors to address the concerns of vice chancellors over the implementation of the NEP, Mr Patil said.
Taking note of the dismal percentage of voter registration by students of universities and colleges, he said “The government will issue a resolution mandating students to get their voter registration done for getting admission to colleges.” As against the goal of attaining the enrolment of 50 lakhs students in the higher education system, Maharashtra has enrolment of only 32 lakh students, Patil said.
The minister called upon universities to run a campaign to improve the enrollment percentage.
He also said there was a need to take into cognisance the recommendations of NEP regarding providing education in mother tongue and skill development.
State Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari called upon vice chancellors of public universities in Maharashtra to turn universities ‘aatmanirbhar’ (self-reliant) to attain the goal of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.
