- The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development launched two new initiatives viz.
- Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) and
- Annual Refresher Programme In Teaching (ARPIT)
for higher education faculty.
- ARPIT is a major and unique initiative of online professional development of 15 lakh higher education faculty using Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) platform SWAYAM.
- LEAP is a 3 weeks flagship leadership development training programme for 2nd level academic functionaries in public funded higher education institutions.
- Its main objective is to prepare second tier academic heads who are potentially likely to assume leadership roles in the future.