Central and state universities in and around Hyderabad have entered into an agreement to share their research and development facilities. D Purandeswari, human resource development (HRD) minister of state on Friday announced that a mechanism for interaction between central and state universities in the city will soon be set up to facilitate this. The project will be extended to other universities in the state within a period of three months. 

   The minister was speaking at a media conference in the University of Hyderabad after a three-hour meeting with bureaucrats, educationists and vice-chancellors of universities in the city.
   Referring to the statement made by HRD minister Kapil Sibal a few months ago, Purandeswari said that a nation-wide common entrance examination for engineering courses might be conducted in a couple of years. “By 2013, before the central government announcesthecommon entranceexam for engineering students across the country, we want to bring in a nationalcommon syllabus at10+2levelfor science,commerce and arts. Weightagewillbe given to10+2 marksin theentranceexam,”Purandeswari said. 

   The minister said that heads of universities in the city have agreed to cooperate to establish a close-knit network among them to provide joint courses and degrees for students. Institutional partnership will also facilitate credit transfer from one university to another, she said.
   Purandeswari said that the university heads have formed two committees to implement the agreement. “The first committee will facilitate communication among the central and state universities in order to utilize infrastructure, research facilities and expertisejointly. The secondcommittee willoversee a public outreach programme which will be taken up by universities to carry out research and provide solutions to the problems in the communities surrounding their campuses,” she said. Within three months, the minister will convene a meeting of other universities in the state. The agenda of this meeting will be to hold regular interactive sessions between heads of institutions to identify areas of collaboration.
   She also spoke about increasing the retirement age of professors in state institutions.
   “The central government has directed state governments to up the age limit of professors to 65 years as against the current age limit of 60 years. Although the state government has opposed the implementation of this rule, the central government insists that this should be enforced citing a 40% shortage in faculty in institutions of higher learning in the country as the reason. The state universities will have to come to a consensus and implement this rule,” Purandeswari said. Talking about improving the quality of education in stateuniversities,the minister saidthatthe UGC has sanctioned a one-time grant of Rs 5 crore for the development of new universities in the state.
   The state is also going to witness major expansion of educational sector with many new institutions coming up here, she said. As announced in the central government’s budget-2008, a world class university will come up in Visakhapatnam, Purandeswari said. She also informed that an architectural university will be established in Vijayawada . The minister saidthateven an IIMfor thestateison the cards.
   Meanwhile, just outside the venue of the press conference, the joint action committee of the non-teaching staff of University of Hyderabad held a protest against the decision of the UGC to cancel two schemes which came into effect in 2008. As per a UGC directive, the executive committee of UoH had decided a week ago that the non-teaching staff of the general and technical cadres, who got out of term pay increase, will now have to pay back the amount they got as salaries within the next three years. The staff is currently facing recovery pay cuts between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000, the protesters claimed.