The Commission has laid down certain aims of university education in the country keeping in view the past tradition, the present conditions and future prospects of the country.
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In this context the Commission took into consideration the personal interests of students and also of the nation. While defining the aims the Commission has been also conscious of the international obligations. We are giving below the aims of university education as laid down by the Commission:
1. The aims of university education should be to produce able citizens who can take up national responsibilities successfully in various fields.
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The university has to produce able administrators and suitable workers in various occupations and industries. The university has to provide leadership in the various walks of life in the best interest of the nation.
2. It is the duty of a university to preserve and develop the culture and civilization of the land. It is on the basis of one’s culture that one may acquire self-confidence, self- respect and self-dependence. These virtues on the part of citizens will make the nation really very strong.
3. The university should generate new ideas and discard those which are likely to prevent the growth of the nation.
For progress it is necessary to rise above superstitions. The university has to help the students to imbibe good aspects of their culture and to accept new values for all-round development.
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4. The university should provide opportunities to acquire all kinds of knowledge.
5. The university has to educate the mind and soul of the student in order that he may grow in wisdom.
6. It is the responsibility of the university to create a consciousness in students for protecting the directive principles as to be laid down in the Constitution.
The university has to make the foundation of democracy strong and it has to develop the spirit in students for ensuring equality, fraternity and social justice to all while maintaining the integrity of the nation.
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7. The university has to develop the spirit of universal brotherhood and internationalism in students.
8. The University has to make new discoveries and inventions and it has to develop new original ideas in order to make the society strong.
9. The university has to instill moral values in students while making them well disciplined.
Teaching Standards
The Commission has attached great importance to high teaching standards. So the Commission has urged that the standards of teaching and examination should be so raised that our students may be equal to their counterparts anywhere in the world.
The Commission has expressed regret that the prevailing standard of university is deplorable because of the fall of standard of intermediate education.
Consequently able students are not coming for University education.
Therefore the standard of university education has also fallen down. The Commission has given the following suggestions for improving university standards:
1. Only the intermediate passed students should be admitted to universities.
2. In every State a good number of intermediate colleges should be opened. If intermediate classes are attached to universities at some places, they should be shifted on separate premises. ,
3. Intermediate class students should be given opportunities for obtaining vocational education.
4. A degree college affiliated to a university should not have more than 1500 students in it. Similarly, a teaching university should not have more than 3,000 students.
5. A degree college should have at least 180 working days in a year.
6. The teachers should prepare their lectures more carefully and they should take special interest in tutorial work.
7. No book should be regarded as a text-book and in no course text-books should be prescribed.
8. Too many private students should not be permitted to sit at a university examination. A minimum percentage of attendance at lectures should be fixed for students. Students falling below this percentage of attendance should not be allowed to sit at the examination concerned.
9. For tutorial work suitable teachers should be appointed.
10. Provision should be made for good libraries and well- equipped science laboratories.
Post Graduate Teaching and Research
The Commission has given the following suggestions in this regard:
A close relationship should be maintained between teachers and research scholars. Admission to post-graduate classes should be governed by an all India examination.
Ph.D. scholars should be chosen on all India bases. The duration of research for Ph.D. should be at least two years. The Ph. D. research scholars should also have knowledge of allied subjects.
Ph.D. scholars producing good research work should be given opportunities for further studies. Such research scholars should be given fellowships and their selection should be made on all India bases.
The Education Ministry should grant stipends to those. D. Lit. And D.Sc. degree-holders who have evinced capacities of high order of research. No partiality should be made in the selection of such degree-holders.
D.Litt. and D.Sc. digress should be awarded only on original works.
Universities should be given adequate financial assistance.
The Curriculum
The Commission has given the following recommendations for reorganizing the university curriculum:
1. Knowledge should be considered as one whole. The courses of studies are only means of composite knowledge and they should not be considered as an end. Hence while drawing up the courses of study the connection and link between the varying aspects must not be missed. In other words, knowledge should be cultivated in its entirety. There should be a connecting bond between the general, intellectual and vocational education.
2. The courses of studies for universities and intermediate college should be reorganized on the above principles. Only then the defects of the existing system of education may be removed.
3. The relation between the general and specialized education should be defined in the context of its relevance to individual, social and professional benefit to the student.
Professional Education
Vocational education, teachers’ training, engineering, technology and medical education may be included under professional education. The Commission has given suggestions for improving these types of education. Some of the more important suggestions are being given below:
Education in Trade and Commerce
The Commission has suggested that commerce students should be given practical instructions in institutions of trade and commerce for three or four years. Their education should not be only bookish.
Teacher’s Training
1. Greater attention should be paid on practical experience and less on theoretical. Accordingly, the curriculum should be reorganized in a more useful manner.
2. Teachers of training colleges should have enough teaching experience in schools.
3. Higher degree in education should be given to those students who have already taught for a number of years.
4. Teachers of training colleges should do original researches in the field of education.
Engineering and Technology Education
The Commission gave the following suggestions about this:
1. Institutions imparting education in engineering and technology should be nationalized. They should not be allowed to be a property of some person.
2. More colleges of engineering and technology should be opened in the country.
3. The curriculum of these institutions should be diversified according to the needs of the country.
4. Provision should be made for higher researches in these institutions.
5. Greater importance should be attached to the acquisition of practical skill and knowledge in these institutions.
6. Provision should be made in these institutions for special researches for a high order in the field of technology.
7. These institutions should be free to manage their own affairs. They should not be controlled by the ministry and bureaucracy.