Karanataka: Welcome surprise

IN A SIGNIFICANT STEP TOWARDS liberalisation of india’s strictly controlled higher education sector, the Delhi-based University Grants Commission (UGC) has granted unprecedented autonomy to 60 higher education institutions across the country, including 52 Central, state, deemed and private universities plus eight autonomous colleges. Although these select institutions, which are highly rated by the Bangalore-based National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC, estb. 1994), will remain under the administrative jurisdiction of UGC, henceforth they will have the freedom to start new courses, establish off-campus learning centres, introduce new skill development programmes and establish research parks.  They will also have the freedom “to hire foreign faculty, enroll foreign students, give incentive-based emoluments to the faculty, enter into academic collaborations and run open distance learning programmes,” according to a March 20 press note issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) of the Central government. Hitherto, any and all these initiatives required prior written permission of UGC, which was seldom given. Moreover, the eight colleges also conferred autonomy will be “free to set their own syllabus, hold examinations, carry out evaluation as well as declare results… only the degree will be awarded by the respective university,” says the PIB press note.  Five universities in Karnataka — University of Mysore; Jain University, Bangalore; Manipal Academy of Higher Education; KLE Academy of Higher Education and Research, Belagavi; JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Mysore — are in the list released by Union human resource development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar on March 20.  However, although all the selected 60 higher education institutions have been granted autonomy which is substantial and real — and beyond the expectation of the most liberal academics — some higher ed institutions awarded NAAC rating above 3.5 are classified as category I (institutions with NAAC rating of 3.26-3.5 are classified as category II) and are more equal than others. Two Central (JNU, Delhi & Hyderabad University); 12 state (including Jadavpur, Kolkata, Anna University, Chennai and Punjabi University, Patiala), 11 deemed (including Symbiosis, Pune and NMIMS, Mumbai universities) are classified as category I. As such they are conferred all the freedoms awarded to category II institutions and the additional freedom of being beyond UGC inspection.  All the other 35 institutions of higher education awarded autonomy have been conferred category II status. However, in real terms difference in the degree of autonomy conferred upon category I and category II institutions is marginal. “For us, the conferment of autonomy is a freedom charter,” says Dr. H. Vinod Bhat, vice chancellor of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), ranked India’s #1 private university by EducationWorld last year. “UGC’s grant of autonomy will enable us to start colleges, introduce new study programmes and establish learning centres quickly. We can now rollout our plan to establish three new campuses — a medical college in Jamshedpur, a campus offering new age programmes such as humanities, business, management and art in Bangalore, and an international campus in Colombo which will include a medical college in the second phase. Now we are…