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Cover Story

INDIA’S BEST PRIVATE have the freedom to prescribe rules

for admission in consonance with the
AUTONOMOUS ASC COLLEGES reservation policy of the state govern-
ment/ national policy, and indepen-
dently stipulate tuition fees. They can
also constitute their own academic
councils, board of studies and finance
A majority of the private autonomous Arts, Science and committees and shall have “complete
Commerce colleges are Christian minority institutions. administrative autonomy and the
In an era when Hindu majoritarianism is on the march, privilege of appointing their own ad-
ministrative staff and teaching faculty
the huge contribution of Christian institutions to Indian including principal”.
education needs to be borne in mind Moreover, although its degree is
awarded by the affiliating university,
the name of the autonomous college
is inscribed on the degree certificate.
Under s.3, UGC also has the power
to confer autonomy upon high per-
formance private ‘deemed-to-be uni-
versities’ which are also fully autono-
mous, except that they are prohibited
from affiliating colleges, a privilege
(irrationally) restricted to public uni-
versities. In sum, within a higher edu-
cation system in which universities af-
filiate 300-700 colleges, autonomous
colleges can differentiate themselves
from the herd.
However, UGC prescribes stiff
conditions for awarding colleges and
universities autonomous status. Ap-
plicant colleges must be of more than
St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai: top-ranked for third year consecutively ten years’ standing and “accredited by
either NAAC (National Assessment
ndia’s higher education system is technical colleges/universities for the and Accreditation Council) with mini-
defined by bewildering classifica- maintenance of standards. Moreover mum ‘A’ Grade or by NBA (National
tions. In undergraduate Arts, Sci- under the University Grants Com- Board of Accreditation of the All In-
Ience and Commerce (ASC) edu- mission (Conferment of Autonomous dia Council for Technical Education)
cation, school-leavers have a choice Status upon Colleges and Measures for at least three programme(s) or be
between private autonomous, govern- for Maintenance of Standards in Au- awarded autonomy by a correspond-
ment autonomous and government/ tonomous Colleges) Regulations, the ing accreditation grade/score from
private non-autonomous colleges. commission is empowered to confer a UGC empanelled accreditation
In addition, a growing number academic autonomy on high perfor- agency”. Unsurprisingly, only 871 out
of private liberal arts universities — mance colleges. Autonomous status is of the country’s 45,000 colleges have
Jindal Global, Ashoka, Amity, Flame highly prized by college managements been awarded autonomous status by
among others which offer undergrad- because it confers several operational UGC (March 31, 2021).
uate education — have mushroomed freedoms which are denied to non- But this complex, unwieldy higher
across the country. School-leavers autonomous colleges. education system has clearly outlived
have to tread gingerly to select the For one, unlike non-autonomous its purpose, whatever it was. On the
most suitable undergrad institution colleges which are tied to the apron recommendation of the K. Kasturi-
to achieve their higher education goals strings of their affiliating universities, rangan Committee (2018), the Na-
and career aspirations. autonomous colleges are permitted to tional Education Policy (NEP) 2020
Under s.12 and s.26 of the UGC design their own syllabuses and cur- proposes dismantling of the colleges
Act, 1956, the commission is empow- riculums, introduce new study pro- affiliating system and proposes the
ered to issue rules/guidelines to non- grammes, conduct examinations and evolution of colleges into multi-disci-

38 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2022