A significant intervention to make higher education institutions more welcoming and secure for socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, including SCs, STs, OBCs, religious and linguistic minorities, among others, has been proposed in the draft guidelines framed by UGC for providing an equitable opportunity for these sections by allowing students to work part-time (20 hours per week) while studying to help them earn and improve employability.
UGC, the organisation that regulates higher education, made the draught of “Guidelines for Equitable Opportunity to the Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Groups (SEDGs) in HEIs)” available for public comment.
A nationwide discussion on students’ mental health has been sparked by a recent series of student suicides at higher education institutions, including IITs, central universities, IIMs, and NITs, among others. The Lok Sabha was informed last month that over half of all the students who committed suicide over the previous five years belonged to the SC, ST, and OBC categories.
Additionally, the draft suggests that institutions should offer new students relevant orientation, bridge courses, and professional and psychological counseling. These students may need assistance with language barriers or with a smooth transition to rigorous engineering and other professional courses, so the draught suggests these services. It states that counsellors “must ensure the students’ physical, psychological, and emotional well-being.”
The plan has been designed in accordance with the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which broadly categorises SEDGs based on gender identities, particularly those of women and transgender people, socio-cultural identities, including those of SCs, STs, OBCs, and minorities, geographical identities, including those of students from villages, small towns, and aspirational districts, disabilities, including learning disabilities, and socio-economic conditions.
The ‘Earn-while-Learn (EWL)’ scheme, according to the draft, is a way to assist SEDG students in earning money to support their studies while developing skills and abilities that would improve their employability. Additionally, it will assist in lowering the student dropout rate.
