Section 77(1) in Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016
(1)The functions and duties of the Commission shall be as follows, namely:-(a)to prepare guidelines for perspective plan of five years for each university for the location of colleges and institutions of higher learning in a manner ensuring equitable distribution of facilities for higher education, in consultation with the respective university ;(b)to approve comprehensive perspective plan submitted by the university ;(c)to advise the State Government on exploring new ways and means for raising of additional resources and allocation of funds for public and private universities, and for education information and communication technology network ;(d)to create synergy at policy and operative level mechanism for co-existence and co-operation between different types of educational institutions in the domain of pure, technical and professional education at core and domain specific skills level in the State ;(e)to understand and keep track of developments that are taking place at national and global level in delivery of education, use of technology in education, administration and governance of education and evolve an appropriate policy and strategy for the educational systems in the State to be in phase with these changes ;(f)to create synergy through operative policy for research culture in pure and applied domains in all subjects in various disciplines and across different disciplines in educational institutions and also research culture needs and demands of industries ;(g)to create a policy and strategy for sharing of academic and knowledge resources infrastructure amongst various educational institutions and the State, Central and industry research and development laboratories ;(h)to establish and maintain educational information communication network in tandem with the national grid and also enhance the geographical reach so as to bring each and every educational institution into the educational information communication network and to keep track of technology changes and upgrade the network from time to time ;(i)to establish linkages with National Knowledge Commission, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and Human Resources Development ;(j)to create a repository of e-learning objects and virtual experiments and support material in digital format for teaching-learning processes in frontline environment ;(k)to develop a policy and strategy for percolation of use of technology for administration, evaluation and governance of educational institutions and to promote establishment of an e-platform to carry out these tasks by use of information and communication technology ;(l)to explore the scope for sharing research journals, research and technology reviews and other such material that enhances scope and quality of research by use of Information and Communication Technology through creation of network of various knowledge resource centers in educational and research and development institutions in the State and also at national level ;(m)to prepare programmes in the various subjects in the sphere of higher education, keeping in view the overall priorities, perspectives and needs of the society and expectations from higher education ;(n)to advise the State Government in respect of determining and maintaining uniformity of standards of education in the universities ;(o)to advise on promoting co-operation and co-ordination of the various educational institutions among themselves and explore the scope for interaction between the universities on the one hand, and industry and other organizations on the other hand ;(p)to suggest ways and means of raising additional resources for higher education from industry and other sources ;(q)to advise on inter-university programmes for various activities undertaken by the universities ;(r)to advise on programmes for greater co-operation and interaction and exchange of university teachers, college teachers and the teachers of university departments ;(s)to initiate inter-university programme for various activities related to teaching, research and extension in the field of higher education ;(t)to take into consideration various suggestions, advises and specific recommendations for making academic, administrative, governance and financial synergy more conducive for growth and sustenance of quality in colleges, educational institutions and universities, and to devise mechanisms to bring them into practice ;(u)to devise and implement approaches for enhancing of knowledge and use of technology in teaching-learning processes for teachers ;(v)to create platform for academicians with experience in education and research that would form a core for reforms and also operating mechanism in academic framework, course work, delivery methodologies, evaluation of students ;(w)to make recommendations regarding performance based appraisal system using key performance indicators for principals, heads of institutions and departments and academic performance indicators for teachers in the university and institutions of higher education ;(x)to recommend necessary steps to restructure institutions of higher learning whose performance is consistently poor in the areas of academic, governance and infrastructure ;(y)to interact with national and global assessment and accreditation agencies and to carry systemic total quality assessment and programme-wise assessment processes in colleges, educational institutions and universities ;(z)to create a data base of teachers, academic and industry experts, colleges, educational institutions and universities in the State ;(za)to create a data base of Indian students by making use of the unique identification number when they join a college at entry level ;(zb)to establish information collection and data creation cell for foreign students ;(zc)to keep information on annual financial estimates of the universities, their generation of finances through other streams, research and development, consultancy, training-cum-skills development programmes, special programmes for foreign students and any other similar activities and to devise various streams for generation of financial resources so as to strengthen their financial position ;(zd)to take steps and recommend to the State Government and to the universities the steps that may be taken to remove the regional imbalance, and to make higher education available to backward classes, rural and tribal communities, women and any such specified groups;(ze)to review co-operation and interaction among all educational institutions in the State for sharing of academic and other support infrastructure and suggest ways and means to make it more efficient and effective;(zf)to review the approach and methods adopted by the colleges and universities, both public and private, for integrating education with social development and to study the impact of such an approach on social development and suggest ways and means to make it more efficient and effective;(zg)to consider the report of the Maharashtra State Rashtriya Ucchatar Shiksha Abhiyan Council, made under sub-section (4) of section 78 ;(zh)develop the vision plan with specific annual outcomes keeping in view the goals of academic excellence, administrative reforms and financial improvements.
