Five-year vision plan ‘Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme (EQUIP)’ finalised and released by HRD Ministry
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 |
| Group 1 | Strategies for expanding access | Shri Hasmukh Adhia, Chancellor, Central University Gujarat |
| Group 2 | Towards global best teaching/learning process | 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 | Governance reforms | Prof M S Ananth, Chairman, National Testing Agency (NTA) |
| Group 5 | Assessment, Accreditation & Ranking systems | Prof Surendra Prasad, former Director, IIT Delhi |
| Group 6 | Promotion of research & innovation | Dr. Vijaya Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to PM |
| Group 7 | Employability & entrepreneurship | 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 | Internationalisation | Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog |
| Group 10 | Financing higher education | Shri. Kris Gopalakrishnan, former CEO, Infosys. |
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 .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
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.