MHRD higher education survey training held

BANGALORE: Close to 80 teaching faculty from 50 colleges in the South Zone underwent training at a workshop that was conducted on Tuesday for the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) at PES College. The workshop was organised by the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE).The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has initiated AISHE to build a database and to assess the correct picture of higher education in the country. “It has been decided to stockpile all available information on all those involved in higher education. The idea here is to make  information available about colleges and faculty to the public,” said a trainer from DTE, adding that the current focus of AISHE was on polytechnic colleges.“The Department of Higher Education, MHRD, is keen to build a reliable and sound database for higher education to make informed policy decision and to do so, it is proposed to conduct AISHE. This would include surveys of all the higher educational institutions in the country,” said Prof Shivashankar, Principal of PES College, Hanumanthnagar, which was chosen for the one-day workshop.“We will train the teaching staff on how to fill up the survey forms prescribed by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). The forms include information such as experience, specialization and so on,” said the trainer.AISHE becomes important as the government has set a target of increasing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) from the present level of about 12 per cent to 15 per cent by the end of XI Five Year Plan and to 30 per cent by the year 2020. To measure the efforts taken by the government to increase the GER requires complete data on higher education such as number of institutions, students and teachers.