The Union HRD Minister Shri Prakash Javadekar signed MoU for Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (Phase- III) with 18 States and 1 UT in New Delhi.
The Focus States are 7 Low Income States (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh), 3 Hill States (Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand), 8 North-Eastern States (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura) and Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The project will be implemented as Central Sector Scheme with the facility of Direct Funds Transfer to the accounts of beneficiary institutes.
The project will be initiated in April 2017 and will be coterminous with Fourteenth Finance Commission (FFC) i.e. 2019-20.
TEQUIP I and TEQUIP II had a positive impact on the infrastructure and educational standards in the technical institutions where they were taken up.
Institutions in the central, eastern and north-eastern region and hill States are at present in need of similar and specific interventions.
The initiation and implementation of the project TEQIP-III arises from the need to bridge this gap.
The major impacts/ outcomes of the project are:
(i) Better academic standards, through accreditation, filling up faculty positions, training faculty in better teaching methods, improved research outputs in institution in Focus States/UTs
(ii) Better administration of the institutions with improved financial/academic autonomy,
(iii) Better systems for assessment of Student Learning, higher transition rates
(iv) Transparent and expeditious release of funds to institutes by way of Direct Funds Transfer (DFT) System.
The Project will be implemented as a ‘Central Sector Scheme’ with project outlay of Rs. 2660 crore. An estimated 200 Government/ Government aided engineering institutes and ATUs including the Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs) will be selected.
The funding pattern for institutes/Affiliating Technical Universities (ATUs) would be as under:-
Non-autonomous institutes: upto INR 10 crores
Autonomous institutes: upto INR 15 crores
Affiliating Technical Universities (ATUs) : upto INR 20 crores
Mentor institutions: upto INR 7 crores
Background:
The Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) commenced in 2003 with World Bank assistance as a long term programme to be implemented in 3 phases. The first phase of Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) commenced in 2003 and ended on March 31st, 2009.
TEQIP-II commenced in August 2010 and is scheduled to conclude in March 2017. The project will cover all Government / Government aided engineering institutes, affiliating technical universities (ATUs) and CFTIs from Focus States/UT.
High-performing TEQIP-I/ TEQIP-II Government / Government aided institutes/ATUs across the country would be eligible to participate in twinning arrangements for knowledge transfer, exchange of experience, optimizing the use of resources and developing long-term strategic partnerships.
