City

‘A+’ for autonomy

To ease the overbearing burden of ever-increasing educational institutions in the city, the University of Pune has decided that it will grant autonomy to those with A or A+ accreditations if they apply for it

Arundhati Ranade

Posted On Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 12:22:53 AM

What does Autonomy for colleges mean

They can introduce new topics in accordance with industry needs
They can tie-up and collaborate with other industries or institutions
They can revise the syllabus
They can conduct exams and
introduce flexible systems like credit system
University will be able to keep a close watch on institutes as the final degree will be given by the university itself

The city’s top colleges will now get more scope for development as they might get academic autonomy within the University.

As major universities of the state are overburdened with the number of colleges under them, the policy of granting autonomous status to eligible colleges is being adopted by the state education directorate.

University of Pune has decided to follow the same and is looking forward to granting autonomy to certain colleges under it.

Although the University Grant commission (UGC) is constantly promoting autonomous colleges, very few from Maharashtra are enjoying autonomy.

Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh are the states with the most autonomous colleges. Maharashtra lags behind with only about ten colleges (mainly government colleges) who have autonomy.

According to sources in the university, about six or seven city colleges providing the traditional non-technical courses have lined up for autonomy from the new academic year.

Former vice chancellor of UoP, Narendra Jadhav, had specified earlier this year that the university was thinking of conducting examinations for only third year or final year students.

The UoP is overloaded with 587 affiliated colleges apart from 382 approved institutes. It has received 270 applications for new colleges between October 1 and October 31, 2009.

With such a growth rate, the university administration is facing problems in routine work such as exams, admissions, etc.

The only way out is decentralisation of the system and autonomy. Some city colleges are coming forward in this regard. Technical education colleges lead the list, but some colleges providing traditional courses are also getting autonomy.

Officiating VC Dr Arun Adsool said, “Academic autonomy is the best solution for excellency, effectiveness in administration and quality education.

There is no other alternative. We will be following the government policy to encourage autonomy in colleges under our jurisdiction.”

Sources at the university said that colleges with excellent track records in terms of quality education and infrastructure will get priority. UoP will consider colleges with an A or A+ accreditation by the NAAC committee.

There are 11 colleges in Pune district with A or A + grade which might get priority if they apply for autonomy. Fergusson College which is an A grade college has already applied for autonomy.

Dr Ravindrasingh Pardeshi, principal, Fergusson College, said, “We applied for autonomy about two years ago. We have not yet received any communication from the university.”

Few colleges still feel they might lose grants if they get autonomy. Few teachers oppose autonomy fearing job insecurity.

But experts say there will not be any change in the policy of hiring teachers or getting grants with the autonomous status, as it is only academic autonomy.

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‘A+’ for autonomy

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