The University Grants Commission (UGC) has finalised its draft regulations for granting autonomous status to colleges and has proposed to remove the eight pre-requisites that institutes have to fulfil now, such as academic reputation, adequate infrastructure, financial strength, and motivation levels of the faculty.
The draft regulations are expected to be made public this week for stakeholders’ comments. Once finalised, they will replace the University Grants Commission (Conferment of Autonomous Status Upon Colleges and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in Autonomous Colleges) Regulations, 2018.
The draft has removed all the eight criterion laid down in the existing regulations, which also include quality and merit in the selection of students and teachers, research achievements, and infrastructure facilities such as classrooms, library, e-resources, laboratories and equipment, sports facilities, and residential accommodation for faculty and students.
It has also relaxed certain eligibility parameters by deleting the paragaph on colleges being required to curb harassment, promote equity, and comply with grievance redressal requirements laid down under various regulations of the UGC.
Any college, whether aided, partially aided and unaided/self-financing is eligible, if it has been in existence for at least 10 years. A Standing Committee of the UGC will examine the application by the college for conferment of autonomous status. However, unlike in the present, there will be no need to appoint a three-member committee to conduct an on-site visit.
“These draft regulations provide freedom to the autonomous colleges to determine and prescribe their own courses of study and syllabi, and restructure and redesign the courses to suit local needs, make it skill oriented and in consonance with the job requirements,” M. Jagadesh Kumar, Chairperson, UGC, said. The regulations were approved by the UGC in a meeting on September 22..
The autonomous status is granted for a period of 10 years and will be automatically extended provided it meets certain criteria under National Assessment and Accreditation Council or National Board of Accreditation.
The National Education Policy envisages that all higher education institutions shall aim to become degree-granting autonomous institutes by 2035.
