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In News
- The report, titled ‘Reforms in Urban Planning Capacity in India’, was released by NITI Aayog.
- It has urged all central universities and technical institutions states to offer postgraduate degree programmes (M.Tech. Planning) to cater to the requirement of planners.
- The report noted that only a little more than 1000 students every year pursue this degree in India.
- It has urged all central universities and technical institutions states to offer postgraduate degree programmes (M.Tech. Planning) to cater to the requirement of planners.
Key Challenges faced by Planning Courses as per the Report
- Lack of Enrollment in Planning Education
- The All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) in India shows that
- only 938 students were enrolled in undergraduate planning education in 2018-19 while
- 1028 were enrolled in M.Plan and only 8 candidates enrolled for PhD in planning.
- The AISHE report 2019-20 showed a slightly better enrolment, particularly, in the Ph.D.
- It also noted that programme-wise enrolment at all the levels of degrees in planning remains a fraction in comparison to the other fields like arts, sciences, and business administration.
- The All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) in India shows that
- Less appealing from employment perspective
- The urban and regional planning education courses offered in India do not appear appealing (in comparison to other fields) to a wide spectrum of prospective students due to following reasons.
- Unclear future employability,
- Low return on investments,
- Lack of awareness in the employers and
- Quality of education/infrastructure.
- The urban and regional planning education courses offered in India do not appear appealing (in comparison to other fields) to a wide spectrum of prospective students due to following reasons.
- Lack of Knowledge/ Awareness among General Public
- Also, urban planning as a profession is not widely known to the general public.
- It can be another reason for the low application level in the degree programmes at undergraduate levels.
Opportunities for the Government to Rope in
- Market Size and Requirement
- It has been estimated that currently, approximately 17,000 urban planners may be available in the market while the actual need may be much higher.
Solutions to increase Enrolment and increase Awareness
- Synergize Educational Institutes with Different Ministries
- All institutions offering such course should synergize with
- the Union ministry of rural development
- the ministry of panchayati raj and
- state governments.
- It will help to develop demand-driven short-term programmes on rural area planning.
- All institutions offering such course should synergize with
- Regulation by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)
- The AICTE may retain the names of specializations based on industry requirements while limiting them to an appropriate number.
- Need to resolve faculty shortage
- Faculty shortage for conducting degree and PhD programmes in planning need to be resolved in a time-bound manner by 2022.
Conclusion and Way Forward
- There is a need for increased interaction between planning agencies and citizens.
- By promoting planning courses, the government can boost Skill India and AtmaNirbhar Bharat Project.
- These Urban Planners can help in better management of towns, municipalities and smart cities.
All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE)
All India Council for Technical Education
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Source: IE
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