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The paper examines how new age pedagogies and neoliberal policies consciously work towards "naturalizing" English language's hegemony in institutions of Higher Education (IHE) in India. An ethnographic study the paper foregrounds the precarious positioning of non-English Indian languages "vis-à-vis" the pervading discourses of internationalization and education as job/skill oriented. Hegemony of English in the present is coupled with a restructuring of language departments as well as fleeting market demands for human capital. The paper also brings into question the role of the Internet and related technologies in reorganizing the linguistic dynamics of HE. Instead of democratizing, the Internet produces new monopolies in knowledge production, controls knowledge traffic from global North to South and further legitimizes the language hegemony. The paper argues that, in the last two decades, the neoliberal rupture has been leading HE institutions to a death of vernaculars within their physical, cultural and academic spaces.

This paper presents a comprehensive review of existing literature concerning the domains of accreditation and quality assurance in various sectors. Accreditation and quality assurance play vital roles in ensuring the credibility, transparency, and effectiveness of educational institutions, healthcare facilities, industries, and other domains. This paper synthesizes the findings of numerous studies, focusing on the conceptual frameworks, methodologies, and outcomes associated with accreditation and quality assurance processes. The review encompasses a wide range of perspectives, including historical context, best practices, challenges, and advancements in accreditation and quality assurance. Through a systematic analysis of these scholarly works, this paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of the evolving landscape of accreditation and quality assurance across diverse sectors and shed light on potential future research directions.

Alphabet-based languages are more often researched in literacy acquisition and education than akshara languages. Languages that use alphasyllabaries including symbols, called aksharas, represent a large portion of the world's languages, including the languages of the second most populous country, India. This conceptual research paper addresses teacher education in literacy related to the akshara languages. Using the theory and research base of existing letter and akshara acquisition, with teacher education standards for literacy in alphabet-based languages, this paper presents a model for teacher education in literacy for akshara languages. This framework provides teacher education standards and other considerations, such as evaluation of teacher education curriculum and performance, to enable data-based decision making in literacy instruction. The premise of this paper is to approach the problem of dismal literacy rates by drawing into the robust research in alphabetic language literacy education by using a systematic approach to target the source -- pre-service teacher education. While this paper addresses examples of languages in India, other transparent orthographies that use symbols or aksharas can draw from this to inform their teacher education in literacy.

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 of India reframed the present structure of higher education such as syllabi, examinations, and assessments. Due to the pandemic, many educational and research institutions are building a knowledge and skill-based curriculum and designing new credit-based courses, while encouraging students to attend online courses as a way to meet the recommendations of NEP. Any e-learning platform or online course has four basic components: Videos, Activities, Additional Reading Material, and Discussions, with Additional Reading Material being a more important component. Online courses that are open to everyone (MOOCs) can be adopted irrespective of the students' specialization or area. The instructor provides the reading material to the learners as a fixed, recommended list irrespective of the learner's interest or specialization. Instructors are finding it difficult to cater to the diversity of learners' interests and learning styles. In this paper, I have focused and analyzed the additional reading material and digital reading patterns of learners in various MOOC platforms by conducting online surveys. I concluded that there is a need to use learning eXtension Trajectories (LxT) in the learner-centric MOOC model where an instructor can identify various supportive domains and provide a shortened list of resources comprising various media to the learners.

The present paper studied the various issues and challenges of student's assessment that has been faced by college teachers and students of Kashmir division during COVID-19 Pandemic. Assessment is the major aspect of the education system. The student assessment is the act of evaluating student's abilities and achievements. It is ongoing process and integral part of the teaching and learning process. The teacher makes judgments about the students learning or to determine student's interest through assessment. It helps the teacher to reflect on each student's level of achievement as well as to customize their teaching plans accordingly. After COVID-19 Pandemic the student assessment has been shifted more to the online assessment. The teachers have faced lot of issues due to lack of access of internet and technology. In every sphere of education there is a great impact of technology on the students learning that has been done after COVID-19. The present study was descriptive- survey based study. Both primary and secondary sources of data were collected. For the secondary sources of data the investigator had reviewed various national and international papers related with the present study. The sample comprised of 400 college students and 400 teachers from various degree colleges of Kashmir Division. Self- developed interview schedule and self-constructed were used for the data collection. The investigator has conducted a group interview of 10 college's students and 10 teachers separately that constituted of 80 interviews. On the bases of these 80 group interviews the researcher developed themes of all interviews and analyzed all these into specific themes. The investigator suggested some recommendations for improving the better assessment of students through remote learning. The study indicated that there are major six challenges in the context of online assessment i.e., lack of internet connection, language problem, parental attitude, mental disturbance, heavy work load and inaccessibility of smarts phones.

Within the spirit of conspiration, this article brings together contributions from participants of the PhD-led UCL Reading and React Group 'Colonialism(s), Neoliberalism(s) and Language Teaching and Learning', which ran in 2019/20. Weaving together various perspectives, the article centres on the dialogic nature of the decolonial enterprise and challenges the colonial concept of monologic authorial voice. Across the reflections on participants' own engagements with questions of decolonising language teaching and learning, we pull together three threads: the inherent coloniality of the concepts that shape the very disciplines we seek to decolonise; the need to place decolonial efforts within broader contexts and to be sceptical of projects claiming to have completed the work of decolonising language teaching and learning; and the affordances and limitations offered to us by our positionalities, which the reflexivity of the conspirational encounter has allowed us to explore in some depth. The article closes with a reflection on the process of writing this article, and with the assertion that decolonising the curriculum is a multifaceted and open-ended process of dialogue and conspiration between practitioners and researchers alike.

The study aims to understand the foremost challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study adopts the PRISMA approach to screening the selection of journal articles and review papers according to the research aims and the inclusion criteria. The journal articles and review papers were extracted and stored in Microsoft Excel and Google Scholar, Academic. Microsoft, Semantic Scholar, Elsevier, and Emerald Insight databases searched relevant documents using formulated keywords. A statistical technique was applied using the M.S. Excel analysis tool (PivotTable and an independent t-Test) to analyze data and determine the differences between teachers and students. The review revealed the evidence that the majority of the studies were primarily focused on the individual developing countries and results from other developing countries were not considered. In addition, the foremost challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic were inadequate skills and training, inadequate Internet/Infrastructure, lack of supporting resources and lack of online student engagement and feedback. Finally, the independent t-test reveals there is no statistically significant difference in challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both teachers and students encounter similar challenges. The systematic review raised concerns that higher learning needs to effectively implement long term strategies and support teachers and students in getting into online teaching and learning.

The higher education efficiency evaluation model using the data envelopment analysis method has interested many researchers. This paper uses bibliometric analysis on publications extracted from the Scopus database to provide a comprehensive overview of research publications on the measurement of higher education efficiency based on data envelopment analysis: its growth rate, major collaboration networks, the most important and popular research topic. A total of 169 related publications were collected and analyzed from 1988 to 2021. The analysis results show that: Publications published every year have increased sharply in the last six years; The quality of publications is relatively high as publications tend to be published in journals with high-ranking indexes; Countries with the most influence in studies on this topic are: Italy, China, Spain, the USA, and the United Kingdom; Authors with the most influence in this research direction are Agasisti T., Abbott M., Doucouliagos C., Avkiran N.K., and Johnes J.; The research cooperation among countries and among affiliations is not strong. Finally, the paper has provided recommendations for future studies based on the findings.

The competency-based undergraduate medical curriculum in the preclinical years requires clinical topics to be taught using a linker clinical case for students to appreciate the clinical application of basic sciences. The objective of this study was to evaluate student and faculty satisfaction regarding the construct and delivery of an aligned and integrated curriculum that involved the use of linker clinical cases. We aimed at evaluating the perceptions and performance of students when paper cases were supplemented with a simulated patient (SP) video. This interventional study was conducted by inviting 250 medical students from the first professional phase from the 2020-2021 batch. Integrated modules were prepared for two clinical conditions: myocardial infarction (MI) and nephrotic syndrome (NS). The topic NS was taught with a paper-based case while the topic MI was supplemented with an SP video. Feedback from students and faculty was collected using a newly developed and validated questionnaire and focused group discussions. The students performed significantly better in the assessment conducted after the topic MI compared to NS. The majority of the students (80%) expressed a preference for the video to understand the clinical relevance when compared to the paper case. Overall, the students (83-87%) expressed satisfaction with integrated teaching sessions using clinical cases. Using linker clinical cases in an aligned and integrated preclinical curriculum allowed students to interrelate the subjects and apply them to clinical contexts. The SP videos prepared from an authentic setting facilitated learner engagement with a better understanding of the clinical relevance of the basic sciences.

Intercultural Perspectives on Information Literacy and Metaliteracy (IPILM) is a discourseoriented learning environment that engages students from diverse cultural backgrounds to participate in collaborative knowledge construction. The objective is to evolve a thematic approach to course design that includes elements of open pedagogy, information literacy, and metaliteracy. IPILM invites participation from educators and learners from around the world and has witnessed an increase in participating countries. This paper describes the concept of IPILM and demonstrates the implementation of this approach in practice. The initiative was well received by students and is both feasible and sustainable as an intercultural learning endeavor. IPILM is an ongoing project and a work in progress that is an adaptable model which may be transferred to disparate fields of teaching and learning or adopted by international communities of instructors.

Concept maps help detect misconceptions and provide revision exercises to assess comprehension once a topic has been introduced. A concept map is a schematic drawing used to show the connection among the concepts in propositional form. A concept map is a helpful tool for illustrating the relationships between main concepts and sub-concepts. The main objective of the study was to identify misconceptions about the human digestive system among higher secondary students using concept maps. The data was collected from higher secondary students XI class students) (N = 388) with the help of students' preliminary concept maps and researcher-made concept map tools. Findings of the study showed that secondary school students hold misconceptions related to the human digestive system, i.e. few (22.68%) students have misconceptions such as 'Human Digestive System is the process by which hard food is converted into simple diffusible assimilable nutrients', few (19.32%) students have misconceptions such as 'Alimentary Canal starts with the throat," etc. The present paper will help use concept maps for the identification and remediation of students' misconceptions.

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] We present the pedagogical design and implementation of "ESSENCe": Experimental problem solving using Staging, Scaffolding, Embedded information sources, iNstruments, and Collaboration. Research in experimental physics requires problem-solving skills that include designing investigations, developing instrumentation techniques, troubleshooting, planning data analysis, and evaluating experimental outcomes. Most of these skills can be taught at the undergraduate level but are unfortunately skipped in traditional cookbook-recipe style labs. Since many physics experiments require electronics, the ESSENCe pedagogy presented here has been developed in the context of undergraduate electronics laboratory courses. The goals of ESSENCe labs are to help students apply their theoretical knowledge of electronics to hands-on open-ended experiments, understand properties of physical systems and limitations of measurements, and to learn how to work with sophisticated instruments used in experimental research. ESSENCe emphasizes collaboration with peers and teaching assistants. This paper presents the results of ESSENCe implementation in a sophomore undergraduate analog electronics lab of 45--60 students over multiple years in a top-ranked technological university in India. A mixed methods study was conducted to analyze students' development of experimental problem-solving skills through repeated measures of performance on experimental tests and video analysis of students working on the experiments. We found statistically significant improvement in students' experimental problem-solving skills over the course of a semester. The study also analyzed students' perceptions about the benefits and challenges of the open-ended collaborative lab.

Purpose: This paper presents the features and relevance of open distance learning in the context of the socio-economic conditions of people living in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in India. Although the primary purpose of the present study was to ascertain the effectiveness of the learner support services (LSSs) and different facilities offered by the open distance learning (ODL) institutions in that specific region. On the basis of these findings, few suggestions are made for the improvement in the support services, in order to make the ODL system more responsive to the area-specific needs of the learners, especially those residing in inaccessible areas such as J&K. Design/methodology/approach: A survey-based descriptive methodology was applied to conduct this study. The data extracted from primary and secondary sources were analysed to reach certain conclusions. In total, 1,200 distance learners constituted the sample of the research. A semi-structured questionnaire was designed and distributed amongst learners and academics in the region to obtain their feedback and opinion on different aspects of support services and facilities offered to ODL learners. Findings: Results of the study revealed that overall, the LSSs were satisfactory on different parameters, although they slightly varied from institution to institution. However, there was still scope for improvement in certain areas, where institutions further need to make serious efforts to address the identified gaps for improving the LSS and make teaching-learning more learner-centric in view of their specific requirements and local circumstances of J&K. Research limitations/implications: The present study focusses on presenting an overview of the only major components of LSS offered by ODL institutions and covers six distance education institutions (DEIs) located in different geographical locations within the limited jurisdiction of J&K. There is still scope to make focused (institution-wise) studies in a more specific situation and context to ascertain the problems in a more realistic way. Practical implications: Although the study has been conducted in a specific territory of J&K, the findings reported in the paper may be equally useful for the other ODL institutions with similar characteristics or located in similar geographical locations, as support services are essential common components of institutions offering distance education programmes or courses. Originality/value: The study is original research work conducted in the specific context of J&K, and its findings are based on the primary and secondary data collected from learners and other stakeholders of the selected ODL institutions. This work may be significant for the DEIs of J&K to get familiar with the essential components of LSS and develop a mechanism to further improve the academic and administrative support services for distance learners.

Purpose: The study aims to validate a mobile learning readiness scale through the technology readiness and acceptance model (TRAM), thereby assessing students' readiness to adopt m-learning in teaching and learning, including its acceptance. Design/methodology/approach: A structured questionnaire was administered to open and distance learning (ODL) students in Odisha, India, to assess their readiness and acceptance of m-learning. 665 valid responses were collected, and collected data was analysed using statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS) and SmartPLS. Findings: The findings of the study reveal that optimism contributes positively to perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) of m-learning ([beta] = 7.921, p < 0.001; [beta] = 2.123, p < 0.05), whereas innovativeness positively contributes to PEOU of m-learning ([beta] = 2.227, p < 0.05), but not PU of m-learning. ODL student's optimism improves his/her PEOU and PU of m-learning, but innovativeness improves only his/her PEOU. Further, the impact of innovativeness is higher than that of optimism in the TRAM and innovativeness is the strong predictor to adopt m-learning. It also shows that the PU of m-learning positively influences behavioural intention to use m-learning ([beta] = 4.757, p < 0.001). Integrating technology readiness (TR) with technology acceptance model (TAM) to predict students' acceptance of m-learning is very useful. Practical implications: The paper will help decision-makers to adopt and use m-learning in higher educational institutions. Originality/value: This paper is the first to explore the readiness and acceptance of m-learning in higher education in India.

The International Virtual Exchange Project (IVEProject) has been connecting students across multiple countries through asynchronous forums on a large scale since 2015. However, considering the variety of virtual exchange methods and the advantages they bring to the field of foreign language learning, there is an increased need to explore the pedagogical possibilities of combining asynchronous and synchronous modalities, particularly across multiple institutions and countries. This short article reports on a pedagogical innovation which involved adding synchronous sessions conducted over Zoom to the asynchronous IVEProject forums. The authors arranged eight weekly Zoom meetings in which students from China, India, Japan, Jordan, Palestine, Türkiye and Syria participated in May-July, 2021. After the final session, a survey was administered to participating students and their teachers to explore their experiences. The results show that the majority of students appreciated and benefitted from the opportunity to communicate synchronously with peers from other countries. The paper also reflects on the benefits and challenges of combining synchronous sessions alongside the asynchronous IVEProject forums, aiming to derive lessons learned from this project in the hope that this will aid future EFL instructors in creating engaging virtual exchange projects which involve participants from multiple cultures and countries.

The trend towards privatization of higher education has been a dominant feature in India, particularly during the decade 2010-20. The main research question enquired in the current research is regarding the evolution of privatization in India during the period 2010 to 2020 and its consequences for access to higher education in India. The methodology used in the paper is descriptive analysis, based on secondary data. It was observed that, while the absolute expenditure of the government on higher education has amplified, the expenditure as a percentage of GDP has reduced during 2010-20. The proportionate share of private institutes and enrolments has increased consistently and rapidly, and that of the public sector has either stagnated or reduced.

Background: The twenty-first-century learners can be termed as digital natives and therefore, any discussion on the pedagogies and curriculum must concentrate on integrating digital literacy skills and the teaching and learning materials must focus on the development of the technological intelligence of the learners. The principal apprehension for all the educationists and curriculum planners is how to transform and modify higher education for preparing the learners of this century to more effectively cope with the challenges of today's labor market. Purpose: The paper aims to answer two key questions facing higher educational educators are those of: (i) what is the present status of higher education in preparing the graduates with the necessary skills and competencies for 21st-century skills, and (ii) how can the present education system integrate the digital and technological intelligence in the curriculum? Methods: Exploration of the current Indian higher education curriculum and critically analyzing the results of various studies conducted in a similar area and by analyzing newspapers, educational policies, public survey results, and literature regarding the trends and developments in the higher education academia. Results: This disposition visualized the possible challenges and suggests practical measures to solve the problems and demand for a new paradigm where there is symbiotic integration of digital literacy skills and technological intelligence is highlighted. Conclusion: There is a great need for updating and transforming the curriculum and pedagogic approaches in tune with the learning styles and demands of the learners.

This paper qualitatively analyses the implication of urban sensorium as a pedagogic mode in the teaching of Urban Studies. Underpinned by the frames of smart learning environments, the paper reiterates experiencing urban ontologies as spatial learning environments. By drawing from a range of transdisciplinary and experiential modes of learning, this paper maps how an undergraduate course on Bangalore city in India served learners to critically engage with and experience spatial urban ontologies both digitally, and in real-world experiences of learning, furthering learner autonomy and reflection. The methodological prisms of this paper are autoethnography and critical reflection. It is organised around enabling learners recognize the experiential, embodied urban spaces through the urban sensorium via real-life engagements with urban spaces, and creation of digital portfolios that map this learning. Findings from the learners' knowledge of sensory learning, the city's intersectional aspects, and the student's embodied and emplaced self in built environments and digital spaces are analysed via cognitive and affective-reflection levels; the course instructor's reflection is analysed via a process-reflection level. These reflections hold implications for the pedagogy of urban studies in undergraduate classrooms by foregrounding spatiality and urban sensorium as significant critical and affective pedagogic tools. The paper has also accommodated critical engagement with an external faculty member as a co-author, in order to manage any bias or researcher subjectivity in the design.

This paper presents the findings of an exploration of student perceptions of blended learning in next normal management education. During the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning became the normal mode of teaching and learning in higher education. The changing landscape of higher education needs an innovative approach for teaching and learning. In the current circumstances, a combination of online and traditional learning may be assuming a place as the right learning model. This model is commonly known as "blended learning" which can be considered as the next normal learning process in higher education. The focus of this exploratory study is to present the perceptions of management students towards blended learning. Data were collected from 375 respondents from different institutes in India. Descriptive analysis of the responses has been presented. The results of the study show that the students of support blended learning in next normal management education. The study also found that students are ready for blended learning as the next normal learning process.

Higher education in India was caught completely unawares by the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessitated closure of educational institutions. Despite almost a decade of experience with online and distance learning at some top-tier and private institutions, the vast majority were unprepared and looked for quick solutions for different components of teaching-learning depending on the need of the hour. The immediate tool sought was a videoconferencing platform to substitute in-class lectures. With no access to a learning management system, faculty chose one platform for videoconferencing, one for interaction with students, and another for uploading class notes. Disparity in students' access to devices and the internet presented challenges. Assessment of learning, which hitherto was largely pen and paper based, was delayed for lack of a viable solution. Experiences documented in this study demonstrate faculty resilience, but lack of institutional leadership and preparedness is starkly evident.

The COVID 19 pandemic has shaken the world with rising deleterious effects. It triggered some fundamental changes to several population segments sand multiple sectors of the economy. The education system is no exception. With the educational institutions being closed due to lockdown for extended duration, delivery of education has been impacted. This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on education services and proposes an outlook regarding the future of online learning. Given the acceptance by participants (learners and teachers) and advantages (in terms of spread and volume) of online learning over traditional learning, the online learning would continue to exist.

This paper examines the internationalisation processes in the higher education sector in Latvia and explores the motives of international students to study in Latvia, their experience and their plans. The study uses a quantitative data collection method -- a survey -- the results of which allow us to judge the main trends of internationalisation processes in Latvia. The differences between different groups were investigated, highlighting the countries with the most respondents -- India and Germany, and comparing them with each other and with students from other countries. The results show that there are substantial differences between the groups. For German students, Latvia was more of a second option when they failed to get into their preferred university in their home country or elsewhere. They chose to study in Latvia mainly because of the university's study programmes. At the same time, students from India were also interested in factors such as culture, the Baltic region and the attractiveness of Riga.

In this paper we assessed how lower body negative pressure (LBNP) can be used to teach students the physiological effects of central hypovolemia in the absence of the LBNP and/or a medical monitor using a "dry lab" activity using LBNP data that have been previously collected. This activity was performed using published LBNP papers, with which students could explore LBNP as an important tool to study physiological responses to central hypovolemia as well as consider issues in performing an LBNP experiment and interpreting experimental results. The activity was performed at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, with 31 graduate students and 4 teachers of physiology. Both students and teachers were provided with a set of questionnaires that inquired about aspects related to the structure of the activity and how this activity integrated research and knowledge, as well as aspects related to motivation of the students and teachers to perform the activity. Our results from student and teacher surveys suggest that a "dry lab" activity using LBNP to teach physiology can be an important tool to expose students to the basics of systems physiology as well as to provide useful insights into how research is performed. Providing insight into research includes formulating a research question and then designing (including taking into account confounding variables), implementing, conducting, and interpreting research studies. Finally, developing such an activity using LBNP can also serve as a basis for developing research capacities and interests of students even early in their medical studies.

A mentoring approach towards excellence is proposed in this paper. This approach should be followed to develop educational leaders and faculty members to prepare HEIs to build capacity and capability to implement the provisions of the national education policy (NEP) 2020. The approach includes designing the mentoring programme at the institute level, selection and orientation of mentors, selection and orientation of mentees, mentoring process, mentees and mentors' outcomes, and ultimate outcomes of the mentoring programme-academic, research, and excellence. The authors have noted recommendations to make the mentoring programme successful.

The development of any nation depends on its citizens. Every citizen has their contribution to the development of a nation even the disabled person. They also have an equal rights to get a higher education. Higher education increases the chance of employability, thus, affirming dignified life for persons with disabilities. As per Census 2011, in India, out of the 121 Cr population, about 2.68 Cr persons are 'disabled' which is 2.21% of the total population. But it has been seen that very few of these people reach higher education. According to census 2011, 61% of the disabled children aged 5-19 years are attending an educational institution, 12% attended educational institutions earlier while 27% never attended educational institutions. That makes the author think and ask about how our higher education institutions are accessible for disabled students. How inclusive are our higher education institutions? In the light of the above-mentioned problems the present paper has discussed the education of children with special needs in higher education specifically with respect to visual impairment, hearing impairment, locomotor disability, and speech-related impairment. The discussion starts with what all kind of legal provisions and reservations which are there for them in higher education and how many are utilized and used by them. What all things are there in the new education policy for them specifically in higher education, whether their needs have been realized in detail or it has been just touched superficially and at the end, few suggestions related to all these issues have been discussed.

Student's attitudes towards Statistics are pivotal to their learning process as positive attitudes lead to highly satisfactory course achievement and lead to positive outcomes outside class as well. In this paper we are exploring the perception of students of management apropos Statistics, familiarity with which is imperative in today's world of Analytics. The quantitative approach was used to compare attitudes of the students using the two versions of the "SATS-36" instrument validated and copyrighted by Candace Schau. A Google form was used to collect responses and was sent to all the students who were enrolled in the Business Statistics course. 172 students responded for the pre-test study while 71 students responded for the post-test study. Data was analysed to see if gender, specialisation choices and previous math experiences accounted for differences in perceptions towards Statistics. It was found that students' overall perception of statistics is positive and surprisingly they were more positive towards the beginning of the semester. These results are important as they can lead towards understanding of business student's attitudes towards statistics and a way to refine the teaching learning process so that students are in a strong position to exploit the supply demand gap in the Analytics domain and deliver value to organisations.

The higher education system of India is one of the largest systems on the globe, where there is a huge young population. The central government aims to increase the higher education gross enrolment ratio, which will improve the living and economic standards of youth. However, enrolment in higher education is lower for many reasons, including the accessibility of institutions in the rural region and the affordability of learning. The institutional capacity cannot be expanded in an accelerated manner with more than three times the existing capacity in a short period of time. As an alternative, the regulation to award degrees and diplomas through online education is formulated with the assurance of recognition on par with regular degrees and diplomas. The regulatory norms, recognition process, human resources, infrastructure requirements, and quality mechanisms of online programs are reviewed in this paper.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically exhibit the moderating effect of learner interaction (LI) on motivation to learn (MTL), mobile learning (ML) and online learning climate (OLC), so as to bring in enhanced rigour to the virtual knowledge dissemination during the times of crisis. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 784 valid responses were considered for the confirmatory factor analysis to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings: The study found that MTL and ML contributed to improved OLC and high LI moderated the positive relationship between MTL, ML and OLC. LI also directly contributed to an improved OLC. Practical implications: Measures need to be designed to crowbar motivation to ensure heightened interaction of learners, to gear up the ML reach soaring heights achieving a dynamic OLC. Acclimatization of the OLC will be the visionary solution to tackle learning disruption during today's pandemic times and also many other challenges to come in near-far future. Originality/value: The current study established the moderating role of LI in influencing OLC, and also motivating facilitator's for designing upgraded content, and thereby fuelling the intention to learn.

Human resource climate plays an important role in associating people with their organizations. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence about how faculty perceives components of the HR system, particularly in higher educational institutions. The aim of this paper is to explore the factors of HR climate and study their association with faculty retention in different Indian universities. The data for this study was collected through structured questionnaire administered to 306 faculty members of universities and their responses were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS. The results revealed that mentoring, professional development and compensation were perceived as major components of the HR climate. Of these three, mentoring and professional development played a significant role in predicting faculty retention. The post-hoc results showed that the factors varied in their significance according to the university type. These findings suggest that Indian universities lack a formal HR system and the need to integrate HR departments in the university environment is strongly recommended.

This paper explores equity challenges common to short-term cross-cultural research partnerships. We focus on a project-based activity in which U.S. undergraduate students and college faculty taught middle-school students in Goa, India how to make podcasts about complex environmental problems. Project team members conducted a collaborative auto-ethnography focused on questions of power, leadership, collaboration, and equity, and examined exit interview photo elicitation data to identify the core challenges of ethical and equitable short-term cross-cultural research and programming. Our use of photographs as conversation prompts helped to highlight contradictions and asymmetries along axes of power, cultural imperialism, knower-knowledge, age, race/ethnicity, social class, and gender. We reflect on possibilities for educational research that rejects a "voluntourism" model and moves, if imperfectly, toward more equitable international collaborations.

The undergraduate and postgraduate studies of colleges and universities in India have been affected badly amidst the lockdowns for COVID-19 pandemic. The Government has insisted to start the academic activity through online platforms. The biggest concern for the academic institutions now is to select an appropriate e-learning platform. This paper compares different features and facilities available in some widely used online platforms and analyze their suitability from the perspective of socio-economic constraints of students in India. A generic framework for conducting online classes is described that meets the special requirements of the unprivileged students. Some strategic plans to overcome the challenges are identified and suggested. A technical solution for implementation of time-bound assessment module is also proposed.

Human Rights Education (HRE) is critical to human development and societal transformation. In India, although HRE emerged in the 1980s, its incorporation in higher education has not yet reached its full potential. Using the state of Tamil Nadu as our case study, this paper evaluates the integration of courses on human rights in universities and colleges, using a descriptive qualitative approach to analyse the nature and content of such courses, their compliance with India's apex institutional directives, and the challenges faced. The researchers conclude that there is a disconnect between the vision of policy makers and actual implementation of HRE in practice. It is suggested that wider holistic application of HRE in higher education is needed, so that learning becomes a transformative force, empowering the young to develop attitudes of solidarity, tolerance, and respect for social justice.

This paper is a reflective account of a travel that shifted the site of initial elementary teacher education from a metropolitan milieu of New Delhi; to the contrasting locale of a remote mountain region in the central Himalayas. This shift of site aimed to re-locate the concerns of quality schooling, diversity and ecological living to this new context. The possibilities of an emancipatory education for the marginalised children of these remote mountain regions may not emerge from mainstream schooling but are derived from an alternative educational imagination. This alternative educational trajectory is rooted in the children's locale specific bio-physical reality, social ecology and recovery of traditional local knowledge systems. The field experiences at a new site are among the critical dimensions of teacher education for diversity. In comparison to the learning that takes place at an urban location of the initial teacher education programme the insights gained from experiences at this educationally 'non-developed' locale at the margins are central to teacher education for diversity. The visit deepened the understanding that a distinct locale specific alternative vision of educational development is not the same as mainstream notions of school education, economic growth and ecological living.

In this paper, we explore the improvisations made in examination practices in higher education during the pandemic of 2020. Drawing on STS, we start from the theoretical assumption that examinations constitute an obligatory passage point in universities and colleges: a sacred point which students need to pass if they want to gain recognized qualifications. We base our analysis of higher education examinations on cases from six countries around the world: Australia, Belgium, Chile, India, Sweden and the UK. We use the analytical heuristic of choreography to follow the movements, tensions and resistance of the 'emergency examinations' as well as the re-orderings of actors and stages that have inevitably occurred. In our analytical stories we see the interplay between the maintenance of fixed and sacred aspects of examinations and the fluidity of improvisations aimed at meeting threats of spreading COVID-19. These measures have forced the complex network of examinations both to reinforce some conventional actors and to assemble new actors and stages, thus creating radically new choreographies. Although higher education teaching and didactics are being framed as a playground for pedagogical innovation with digital technologies, it is clear from our data that not all educational activities can be so easily replicated.

The importance of research in education is universally accepted. Driving the past two decades, there have been numerous studies, policy documents highlighting the 'importance of research" which India could reap by improving the research infrastructure in Higher education. The present paper traces the regulatory policy and structure of higher education in India since post-Independence(after 1947) period. A detailed analysis is carried out about the the government emphasis on research front. A critical analysis is carried out of the policy initiatives during these years including the New Policy on Education(1986), AICTE and UGC notification in 2010, the Yashpal Committee Report; the National Board of Accreditation(NBA);the National Assessment and Accreditation Council(NAAC); which has resulted on increased emphasis on faculty research. The paper finally assesses the impact of these efforts and development from the perspective of quantity and quality of research publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education (HE) in India has seen an exponential growth phase over the last two decades. Challenges of meeting expansion demands along with goals of equity and quality have underpinned discussions on educational reforms as well. The dynamics of market-supported increased access have compromised on goals of equity, whereas the role of technology in assisting growth has been fraught with similar and greater social challenges. A new normal seems to have emerged into the HE landscape across the world in the form of legitimising and rationalising 'digital' as an equal alternative to the face to face. In the context of a developing postcolonial economy like India, this development has further highlighted the contradictory pulls within the emerging aims/purposes of HE. The digital divide even as it impacts or reflects the existing asymmetries in access to resources, also engenders a dilemma with respect to the desired aims of higher education. There appears to be a contingent shift in approach appropriating the discourse of democratisation of knowledge/educational institutions and materially undermining prospects for enhancing social capital of graduates essential for a critical participation in the social, political and economic realm. In this context, the paper aims to problematize the idea of inclusion of the marginalised through digitalisation of education with focus on the pedagogic space and the possibilities for a participatory, mediated, empathetic and empowering pedagogy. The paper begins by contextualising the digital emphasis in the neo-liberal imagination of higher education in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The higher education system of India is one of the largest systems on the globe, where there is a huge young population. The central government aims to increase the higher education gross enrolment ratio, which will improve the living and economic standards of youth. However, enrolment in higher education is lower for many reasons, including the accessibility of institutions in the rural region and the affordability of learning. The institutional capacity cannot be expanded in an accelerated manner with more than three times the existing capacity in a short period of time. As an alternative, the regulation to award degrees and diplomas through online education is formulated with the assurance of recognition on par with regular degrees and diplomas. The regulatory norms, recognition process, human resources, infrastructure requirements, and quality mechanisms of online programs are reviewed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All academic institution contributes to the corpus of knowledge in some way. To keep expanding, the resulting information and data must be collected in a single area and shared throughout society. Knowledge developed in academic institutions is not adequately preserved or gathered, according to research. It has also been observed that the majority of the content or knowledge developed in academic institutes is unknown to the general public and is categorized as a literature review, which may be useful if proper coding is kept in the organization. The purposeful integration of humans, processes, and technology dedicated to developing, capturing, and executing an organization's creative infrastructure is known as a Knowledge Management (KM) method. Knowledge Management supports educational institutes in refining their capability to acquire and share information and knowledge, applying it to problem resolution and promoting research and continuous development. This paper advocates a holistic strategy for finding, analyzing, recording, retrieving, and distributing the whole of an administration's data properties. Databases, records, procedures, regulations and hitherto un-captured knowledge and talent in ordinary employees are samples of these properties. Higher education institutions can use KM as a tried and true approach to dealing with their problems. KM aids in the motivation of research as well as the promotion of partnerships and innovations in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the benefit of their users, libraries and information centers are preserving a significant amount of electronic data or information in the form of text, images, and numbers. All material is distributed via CD-ROM, DVD, Internet, etc. regardless to where the computer is located or how it is stored. The function of digital libraries in the modern information world, as well as new opportunities and challenges for library services. An electronic collection of physical or digital materials that may also be found elsewhere will be referred to as a digital library. These materials must be complete works that permit full cognitive and practical involvement from people. On the Internet, there are many resources that are accessible for free, and there are also many commercial resources that libraries can subscribe to for a set fee. Many academic libraries in India have consortia-based subscriptions to electronic tools. INFLIBNET is operating consortia like e-ShodhSindhu at University level and N-List Program at College level throughout the India. This paper will discuss the major initiatives/ program taken or organized by University Grant Commission to promote higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]