Page 58 - EducationWorld May 2021

Cover Story
India’s Top 100 non-autonomous colleges

A large number of privately
promoted undergraduate
colleges with excellent
reputation have not been
granted autonomy and
are tied to the apron
strings of their affiliating
university. The reluctance
of government to cede full
governance of excellent
colleges to professional
academics is typified by
the anomalous status of St.
Stephen’s College, Delhi

he Indian media dominated
by beneficiaries of licence- Founder’s Day at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi: classification confusion
permit-quota raj in higher
Teducation seldom debates or Education (AICTE)) has conferred ac- a specialist education-focused news
covers it. Yet pervasive control-and- ademic and administrative autonomy publication — we believe it is incum-
command of institutions of higher on only 827 undergrad colleges that bent upon us to acknowledge these fine
education by the Central government are high performance institutions and differences. Therefore in our annual
in post-independence India has certified as such through an ‘A’ rating EducationWorld India Higher Educa-
dumbed down the country’s higher of the Bengaluru-based National As- tion Rankings of the past few years we
education system. None of India’s 979 sessment and Accreditation Council have been ranking privately-promoted
universities, some of them of over 150 (NAAC). However there seems to be autonomous, non-autonomous and
years vintage, are ranked among the no logical rationale for conferring au- government autonomous colleges in
Top 200 in the authoritative annual tonomous status. separate and distinct league tables.
World University Rankings of the Consequently a large number of This classification confusion root-
London-based Quacquarelli Symonds privately-promoted undergrad col- ed in the reluctance of government to
(QS) and Times Higher Education leges with excellent reputation are cede full governance of education in-
(THE), while neighbouring communist not autonomous. They are compul- stitutions to professional academics is
China has seven universities ranked sorily affiliated with and governed by typified by the anomalous status of St.
among the Top 200 of both rating parent universities strictly supervised Stephen’s College, Delhi. Although this
agencies. A major cause is that India’s by UGC. Conversely a large number of privately promoted institution is con-
State-dominated patchwork higher private colleges with arguably lesser sistently ranked India’s premier arts,
education governance system is a reputation and learning outcomes science and commerce undergrad col-
welter of confusion and contradictions. have been granted full autonomy. De- lege by most media publications and
For instance, the Delhi-based, spite being awarded NAAC ‘A’ grading is eminently qualified for full autono-
Central government-funded Univer- which is a mandatory precondition of my, it enjoys less autonomy than St.
sity Grants Commission (UGC) which autonomy, many are tied to the apron Xavier’s College, Mumbai and indeed
monitors, licences and controls all of strings of their affiliating universities. all 229 private autonomous colleges
India’s 29,000 arts, science, and com- While these fine distinctions tend to ranked in this issue of Education-
merce colleges (10,300 engineering, be ignored by mainstream media such World. While SXM has full freedom
technical colleges and business man- as India Today, Outlook among other to set its syllabuses and curriculum,
agement institutes are controlled by news magazines which lump and rank St. Stephen’s is obliged to follow Delhi
the All India Council for Technical them together, in EducationWorld — University syllabuses and its students

58 EDUCATIONWORLD MAY 2021