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Cover Story

of faculty, faculty welfare and devel- virtue of being awarded A grade status
opment, curriculum and pedagogy, by NAAC. This status is awarded by
placement record, infrastructure and NAAC after detailed examination and
leadership/management quality. The investigation. That’s why the number
score awarded by carefully chosen of autonomous colleges is only 747
sample respondents to private au- across the country according to latest
tonomous, government autonomous data. In its National Education Policy
(as classified by the University Grants 2019 draft, the K. Kasturirangan Com-
Commission) as also the country’s Top mittee has strongly recommended
100 non-autonomous colleges under liberal conferment of autonomous
each parameter were totalled to rank status on colleges to ‘innovate, com-
colleges in each discrete category. pete, cooperate, govern more locally
Contrary to popular belief, UGC’s and optimise resources’, and there is
conferment of autonomous status on every indication that the NEP 2020
private and government colleges is will incorporate this recommenda-
primarily about academic freedom. tion. To encourage autonomous col-
In 1956, the Delhi-based University leges to regularly debate and discuss
Grants Commission was established ways and means to raise academic
to monitor, regulate, supervise and Dr. Ancy Jose: overdue initiative and administration standards, I was
subsidise all Central government uni- all set to launch a new Association
versities, and to endow project fund- committees and shall have “complete of Autonomous Colleges in Mumbai
ing to state government universities. administrative autonomy and the on April 18. But the launch has been
In the Union budget 2020-21 the Cen- privilege of appointing their own ad- postponed due to the Covid-19 crisis.
tre’s financial allocation to enable the ministrative staff and teaching faculty However, the association will be pro-
commission to discharge its charter is including principal”. moted in the near future,” says Dr.
However, UGC prescribes stiff
Rs.4,693 crore. conditions for awarding colleges and Ancy Jose, activist principal of the
M OREOVER UNDER S.12 universities autonomous status. Ap- Mumbai (NKC, estb.1983), a private
Nagindas Khandwala College,
and s.26 of the UGC
plicant colleges must be of more than
autonomous college affiliated with
Act, 1956, the commis-
sion is empowered to ten years standing and “accredited by Mumbai University which was con-
ferred autonomy in 2016.
either NAAC (National Assessment
issue rules/guidelines to non-tech- and Accreditation Council) with mini- A mathematics and education
nical colleges/universities for the mum ‘A’ Grade or by NBA (National postgraduate of Kerala University,
maintenance of standards. Under the Board of Accreditation of the All In- Jose signed up with NKC ab initio as
University Grants Commission (Con- dia Council for Technical Education) a lecturer and was appointed to the
ferment of Autonomous Status upon for at least three programme(s) or be principal’s office in 1993. This private
Colleges and Measures for Mainte- awarded autonomy by a correspond- autonomous arts, science and com-
nance of Standards in Autonomous ing accreditation grade/score from a merce college has introduced several
Colleges) Regulations, the commis- UGC empanelled accreditation agen- new degree programmes in fashion
sion is empowered to confer academic cy”. Unsurprisingly, only 747 colleges, design, international accounting and
autonomy on high performing colleg- five Central, 21 state, 24 deemed and sports management. Currently NKC
es. Unlike non-autonomous colleges two private universities out of the has 4,557 students mentored by 74
which are tied to the apron strings of country’s 39,931 colleges and 993 uni- full-time and 51 visiting faculty on its
their affiliating universities, autono- versities have been awarded autono- muster rolls.
mous colleges are permitted to design mous status by UGC (until December Against this backdrop, Educa-
their own syllabuses and curriculums, 19, 2019). tionWorld commissioned the Delhi-
introduce new study programmes, “EducationWorld’s decision to based Centre for Forecasting & Re-
conduct examinations and have the evaluate and rank private autonomous search Pvt. Ltd (C fore, estb.2000),
freedom to prescribe rules for admis- and government autonomous colleges routinely numbered among India’s
sion in consonance with the reserva- separately is an excellent and over- most respected market research and
tion policy of the state government/ due initiative. Colleges which have opinion polls company (clients: Con-
national policy, and independently been awarded autonomy by UGC are gress party, Nestle and Mint, among
prescribe tuition fees. They can also separate and distinct from the great others), to poll knowledgeable aca-
constitute their own academic coun- majority of India’s 39,000 colleges demics, faculty and final year college
cils, board of studies and finance because they are on a higher plane by students countrywide to rate and rank

32 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2020