Why in news?

• Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has launched two new initiatives LEAP and ARPIT.

Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP):

• LEAP is a three weeks Flagship leadership development training programme (2 weeks domestic and one week foreign training) for second level academic functionaries in public funded higher education institutions.
• The main objective is to prepare second tier academic heads who are potentially likely to assume leadership roles in the future.
• The programme would provide senior faculty, with high academic credentials, the required leadership and managerial skills including skills of problem-solving, handling stress, team building work, conflict management.
• It will also focus on developing communication skills, understanding and coping with the complexity and challenges of governance in HEIs, financial & general administration.
• The implementation of LEAP Programme will be through 15 NIRF top ranked Indian Institutions.
• The foreign Universities identified for the training are also within the top 100 in the world global rankings.

Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching (ARPIT):

• ARPIT is a major and unique initiative of online professional development of 15 lakh higher education faculty using the MOOCs platform SWAYAM.
• For implementing ARPIT, 75 discipline-specific institutions have been identified and notified as National Resource Centres (NRCs) in the first phase.
• They are tasked to prepare online training material with focus on latest developments in the discipline, new & emerging trends, pedagogical improvements and methodologies for transacting revised curriculum.
• The course is a 40 hour module with 20 hours of video content and 20 hours of non-video content. They are offered in a highly flexible format and can be done at one’s own pace and time.
• There are built-in assessment exercises and activities as part of the academic progression in the course.
• At the end of the course, there will be a terminal assessment which can be either online or a written examination.
• All faculties who have successfully completed the online refresher course will be certified.