aditigyanesh bengaluru the biggest challenge before the newly formed bengaluru central university ahead of the new academic session 201819 is to pull most of its affiliated colleges out of the grip of oldschool teaching and learning methods which is restricting them from making their presence felt on the national and world mapsinnovative learning is alien to bcuaffiliated colleges if the findings of a university survey are any indication surveying its 233 affiliated colleges on the basis of aspiration type scope function focus and outcome the bcu found that 145 of them were stuck with basic aspirationby basic aspiration we mean they are just engaged in daily college activities and regular learning participation in research and innovation is extremely low they need to improve their teaching and learning methods with innovative approaches bcu vicechancellor prof s japhet saidthe varsity has decided to focus on research and innovation along with regular academic activities while evaluating colleges from the next academic session a comparison showed that many private colleges were not taking up innovation and research in their curriculum we want them to come up with local national and international research ideas and we will help them get funds the idea is to address bengalurus advancements and problems through exclusive researches added japhetthe survey found 15 autonomous colleges under bcus jurisdiction to be performing better than other colleges these institutions have earned international and national recognition by focusing on education research and service and are active in scientific technical economic social and cultural fieldsamong the 188 privateaided colleges affiliated to bcu 116 were stuck with basic aspiration and 177 focused on education only only 20 were found to be involved in meaningful researches the other finding was that only 31 of the 236 colleges focused on subjects like humanities arts and vocation firstgeneration learnersas per the indicative profile of pg students studying in bcu colleges fathers of 34 of students were educated up to the high school level while mothers of 42 had less than high school education the families of 70 students had less than rs 50000 annual income the data indicates that many of our higher education students might be firstgeneration learners from their family to reach this level of education we will plan scholarships and programmes to encourage them japhet saidbcus strategy systematize data collection and management streamline operations examination admission studentlifecycle management periodic feedback adopt and implement principles of quality management assess students needs and align associated counselling and support place students and counsel them about employment be centres of innovation and experimentation in education research and service in the university