Page 52 - EducationWorld May 2021

Cover Story

India’s best government autonomous colleges

Within the category of government-promoted higher ed fied by UGC) and 100 highly-reputed
non-autonomous colleges, and ranked
institutions, government autonomous colleges enjoy special them separately inter se. This year too,
standing by virtue of their autonomous status for which a in the EducationWorld Top 500 Arts,
minimum NAAC ‘A’ Grade rating is a condition precedent Science & Commerce Colleges Rank-
ings 2021-22, ASC colleges are ranked
in their separate and distinct sub-cat-
egories to provide level playing fields.
To compile the 2021-22 EW league
tables of India’s best private and gov-
ernment autonomous (as well as
Top 100 non-autonomous) colleges,
representatives of the well-known
Delhi-based Centre for Forecasting &
Research Pvt. Ltd (C fore) interviewed
3,956 sample respondents comprising
1,823 college/university faculty and
2,133 final year college students, and
persuaded them to rate sufficiently
well-known colleges on five param-
eters of tertiary education excellence,
viz, competence of faculty, faculty wel-
fare and development, curriculum and
pedagogy (digital readiness), industry
placement record, infrastructure and
quality of leadership/ governance.
GSC-NR, Bengaluru students: top-ranked this year. Inset. Dr. Krishnappa Low-profile institutions rated by less
than 25 respondents are not ranked.
ndia hosts 39,931 colleges pro- UGC has set stringent conditions It’s pertinent to note that there is
viding mainly undergraduate — uniformly applicable to private and a wide perceived quality gap between
education. Of them, a mere 827 government promoted colleges — for private and government autonomous
Icolleges have been awarded au- awarding prized autonomous status. colleges promoted and managed by
tonomous status (March 31, 2021) Applicant colleges must be of more cash-strapped state governments.
i.e, academic autonomy by the Delhi- than ten years vintage and “accredited This gap is evident in the total scores
based University Grants Commission by either NAAC (National Assessment awarded by this year’s sample respon-
(UGC). and Accreditation Council) with mini- dents to top-ranked colleges in the two
While the overwhelming majority mum ‘A’ Grade, or by NBA (National categories.
are tied to the apron strings of their Board of Accreditation of the All In- While St. Xavier’s College, Mum-
affiliating government universities, dia Council for Technical Education) bai is ranked India’s #1 private au-
autonomous colleges are permitted for at least three programme(s) or be tonomous college with a total score
to design their own syllabuses and awarded autonomy by a correspond- of 618, the top-ranked government
curriculums; introduce new courses; ing accreditation grade/score from a autonomous college — Government
evolve independent performance UGC empanelled accreditation agen- Science College, Nrupathunga Road,
evaluation systems, conduct exami- cy”. Of the 827 colleges conferred au- Bengaluru — has an aggregate score of
nations and notify results. And per- tonomous status by UGC, 720 are pri- 539, a difference of almost 80 points.
haps most important, the name of vately promoted and 107 in the (state) Yet within the category of govern-
the college is inscribed on the degree government sector. ment-promoted higher education in-
certificate awarded by the affiliating Last year, we divided the broad situtions, government autonomous
university. This latter privilege en- category of arts, science and com- colleges enjoy special standing and
ables potential employers to distin- merce (ASC) colleges into three sub- privilege by virtue of their autonomous
guish job applicants graduating from categories: private autonomous, status for which a minimum NAAC ‘A’
premier colleges from others. government autonomous (as classi- Grade rating is a condition precedent.

52 EDUCATIONWORLD MAY 2021