The state is planning a big push to clustering of colleges in the same vicinity. In line with the provisions of the NEP, the UGC had released guidelines for forming cluster institutions this September.
The objective was to transform single-stream or multi-disciplinary institutions with rigid boundaries to become part of a cluster, that is a larger multi-disciplinary higher Education institution.
Unlike cluster universities such as Homi Bhabha and HSNC in Mumbai, formed under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shikshan Abhiyan (RUSA), the cluster institutions will remain affiliated to their parent university, which will conduct their exams too. “It is not like the cluster university planned under RUSA. Under RUSA, the constituent colleges cease to be part of the parent university and become part of an entirely new university.