Friday, November 1, 2019

UGC mulls increasing number of autonomous colleges

TNN | Oct 31, 2019, 04.10 AM IST


Coimbatore: The university grants commission (UGC) is planning to increase the number of autonomous colleges in the country, in a bid to give them more academic freedom and to ensure quality of higher education, UGC member G Gopal Reddy said here on Wednesday.

Of the around 49,000 colleges in the country, only 708 are autonomous, Reddy said while speaking on the sidelines of the inaugural session of the two-day national workshop to train teachers for student induction programmes at the Bharathiar University. “Tamil Nadu has 193 autonomous colleges. We are aiming to increase their number to 1,000 across the country. By getting the autonomous status, colleges get academic freedom and can have their own board of studies, conduct exams and declare results. They can frame a portion of the syllabus, but not completely, as the syllabus should have some uniformity with that of the parent university,” he said.

UGC has also changed the modalities of granting autonomous status to colleges. Earlier the body granted the status to colleges only for five years. From last year, it has been granting autonomy for 10 years.

“If colleges that have ‘A’ rating of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) seek autonomous status, we would complete the process in 30 days. Site inspection is not needed for the colleges that have ‘A++’ grading,” Reddy said.

Speaking of NAAC, the official said 25 years ago, when it was first introduced, it was only voluntary for colleges to go for it, but now it has been made mandatory for funding processes. “We are planning to introduce a new scheme where NAAC would identify higher education institutions to act as agencies that would take up the responsibility of getting 100 colleges under them NAAC accredited,” he said.

Of the 49,000 colleges and 9,000 universities, only 12,000 are accredited by NAAC. “NAAC alone cannot accredit all the remaining institutions. So, we will identify institutions to act as agencies to get 100 institutions under them accredited,” Reddy said.

The UGC has given time till July 2020 for higher education institutions to fill up 90% of vacant teaching posts, he added.

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