Five-year vision plan ‘Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme (EQUIP)’ finalised

 In accordance with the decision of the Prime Minister for finalizing a five-year vision plan for each Ministry, the Department of Higher Education of HRD Ministry has finalized and released a five-year vision plan named Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme (EQUIP). This report has been prepared after a detailed exercise done by the Experts covering the following ten areas:

Group Number	Group Focus	Chairperson Advertisement
Group 1	Strategies for expanding access	Shri Hasmukh Adhia, Chancellor, Central University Gujarat
Group 2	Towards global best teaching/learning process Advertisement	Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Chancellor, Central University of Rajasthan & former Secretary, Dept of Space; former Chairman – ISRO
Group 3	Promoting Excellence	Shri Pawan Goenka, Chairman, BoG, IIT Madras
Group 4 Advertisement	Governance reforms	Prof M S Ananth, Chairman, National Testing Agency (NTA)
Group 5	Assessment, Accreditation & Ranking systems	Prof Surendra Prasad, former Director, IIT Delhi Advertisement
Group 6	Promotion of research & innovation	Dr. Vijaya Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to PM
Group 7	Employability & entrepreneurship Advertisement	Shri Ajit Balakrishnan, former Chairman, IIM Kolkata
Group 8	Using Technology for better reach	Prof Deepak Pathak, Chairman, NIT Goa & Prof IIT Bombay
Group 9 Advertisement	Internationalisation	Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog
Group 10	Financing higher education	Shri. Kris Gopalakrishnan, former CEO, Infosys. Advertisement

2.       The ten Expert Groups drawn from senior academicians, administrators and industrialists, have suggested more than 50 initiatives that would transform the higher education sector completely. The Groups have set the following goals for higher education sector:

1. 1. Double the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education and resolve the geographically and socially skewed access to higher education institutions in India
   2. Upgrade the quality of education to global standards
   3. Position at least 50 Indian institutions among the top-1000 global universities
   4. Introduce governance reforms in higher education for well-administered campuses
   5. Accreditation of all institutions as an   assurance of quality
   6. Promote Research & Innovation ecosystems for positioning India in the Top-3 countries in the world in matters of knowledge creation
   7. Double the employability of the students passing out of higher education
   8. Harness education technology for expanding the reach and improving pedagogy
   9. Promote India as a global study destination
   10. Achieve a quantum increase in investment in higher education

3.       For each initiative, the Groups have recommended modalities for implementation, investments and timelines. The proposal would now be taken for inter-departmental consultations and appraisal through the EFC mechanism before being taken to Cabinet for approval.