Skill Universities: Centres of Excellence or Ivory Towers!!
S kill Universities, as a concept included in the National Skills Policy 2015 has become fashionable in the Indian Skills ecosystem. A number of such Universities have already come up and many more are in the process of setting up. At the top level, the development of Human Resource is divided between MSDE and MHRD, which must converge to become one big HRD Ministry with two major verticals of Education and Skills under one Cabinet Minister. The recent portfolio allocation of appointing one Cabinet Minister for both the Ministries was a positive move, hopefully next step should be to merge the two. At the next level, the UGC will have to make special provisions for these Skills Universities to optimise their functioning. An example to support the points is the guidelines for hiring of trainers, which must be at least in as much detail as for hiring of the Assistant Professors and above. These Universities may aim to enhance the social aspiration of the potential stude...