Universities in the State must compulsorily constitute a committee of experts to conduct an academic audit of the functioning of the university concerned, the Inter-University Board (IUB) resolved here on Monday.

Speaking to mediapersons after the IUB meeting on Monday,Higher Education Minister Dr Parameshwara said this committee will assess the academic activities of the respective university from time to time.

Each university will also constitute a Planning and Evaluation Board, which should meet once in three months, he said. This was a decision that was laid down in the Karnataka State Universities Act 2001, but had not been implemented so far. We are implementing it now, the Minister added. This Board is different from the committee for academic audit,which only looks into academic activities. The Board looks into overall progress of the University.

According to the Act, this Board comprises the Vice-Chancellor as its Chairman, while members include Registrar and Registrar (Evaluation), two senior-most Deans and two senior-most Professors, (who are on rotation for one year, upon the recommendation of the V-C), one expert educationist and one officer of the State Government in the Planning Department not below the rank of Deputy Secretary or Joint Director. Two representatives from the industry are nominated as its members.

The deliberations of the Board will be placed before the Academic Council and the Syndicate.

The Board’s purpose is to plan academic courses. research programmes and inter-disciplinary activities, besides enabling interaction with outside agencies for training, extension and research.It will also monitor all these activities regularly.

The Higher Education Minister said the IUB also gave a more concrete shape to the proposal to introduce the Indian Constitution as a compulsory subject at the undergraduate (UG) level. This will be implemented in the next academic year.

The Universities will also be phasing out the annual scheme in UG and post-graduate(PG)levels, to introduce the semester scheme in these courses, Parameshwara said.