By Shalini S. Sharma
There is a lot of talk about autonomy in higher education these days. Those in the know may recall that University Grants Commission (UGC) used to confer full autonomy via the deemed-to-be-university route till about a decade back. That practice stopped after a public interest litigation was filed in the Supreme Court by one Viplav Sharma in 2006.
The court sought a report from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) which set up a committee headed by Prof PN Tandon in 2009. The committee recommended, perhaps in haste, that only 38 out of 126 deemed-to-be-universities were good enough to continue granting degrees. Of the rest, as many as 44 were recommended for closure. That case and the mayhem that ensued put paid to the hopes of several private players to set up deemed universities with full autonomy. They eventually took the route of state legislatures to set up private universities.
The deemed university route remained closed for a good 10+ years. Last year in October, the Supreme Court closed the case and the ministry came out with amendments in the deemed universities rule. Since then this path has once again become tread-able and in January this year ChinmayaVishwavidyapeetham, Ernakulam, Kerala got recognised as a deemed university by UGC.
The commission is now working on granting autonomy to colleges which at present are affiliated to universities. The affiliated colleges are essentially teaching institutions which depend on parent universities for everything. They do not have the freedom to set their own curriculum, devise their own methodologies of teaching, assess the students on their own or conduct examinations.
Notably, the system of affiliating colleges does not exist anywhere in the world barring a few small countries with no great claim to excellence in higher education. In India, there are universities which have as many as 900 colleges affiliated to them, such as Osmania University in Telangana, which has only 23 colleges with autonomous status. Pune University has more than 800 affiliated colleges. Suffice it to say, the five biggest universities alone have more than 4,000 colleges between them.
It’s not as if the provision of granting autonomy to colleges has not existed before. The UGC has had a scheme under which colleges could apply for gaining autonomy and many have done so till now. As of March this year, 104 universities have 602 colleges with autonomous status. Of this, 169 are Government colleges and 433 are private colleges.
The problem with autonomy so far has been that those who deserve it, do not want it and those who are not worthy, aspire for it. The dilemma of the Government has been to find ways of pushing deserving institutions towards autonomy. With this thought and aim, it has now linked certain indicators of quality output such as ‘A’ grade accreditation by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), at least three courses with full accreditation by National Board of Accreditation (NBA) or a rank among Top 50 in India Ranks as per the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), with grant of autonomy status. Institutions which fulfill one or more of these parameters can apply for autonomy to UGC.
A provision has been made to provide special grants to facilitate the journey of these institutes towards autonomy. Part VI, point number 10 of UGC guidelines also clarifies that the “colleges will continue to receive funds as being done before the grant of autonomous status”. This is expected to act as a spur since many have been fearing that autonomy will mean suspension of funds from parent universities and a push towards privatisation and commercialisation.
How many of India’s Ivy League colleges, and there are quite a few such as St. Stephens, Lady Sriram, Miranda House in Delhi alone, take this offer of the Government and apply for gaining autonomy remains to be seen.
(The writer is a freelance journalist)
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