Unheard Voices of Autonomous Colleges | Justine George & Savitha K.S

Keywords: Autonomous College, NEP 2020, University Grants Commission

Most affiliated colleges in India are now in a dilemma to seek autonomy status or continue their affiliation with a university when UGC relaxed the application norm in April 2023. The condition was reduced to a minimum of A Grade accreditation by NAAC or NBA accreditation for at least three programmes alongside a minimum of 10 years of existence. There has been an unprecedented increase in applications to get autonomous status with the release of UGC regulation in April 2023. Since then, UGC has received applications from over 590 colleges, in which the commission has reviewed and approved more than 460 applications. On the other hand, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 envisions gradually doing away with the affiliation system to create autonomous multi-disciplinary institutions with degree-awarding facilities by 2035. However, higher education institutions must create a conducive environment for encouraging innovation and creativity, which can be attained through academic freedom and self-governance to address the issues concerning the sector.

The Kothari Commission first expressed the need for autonomous colleges in 1966, which was connected with deteriorating higher education standards due to the affiliating system. The guidelines for establishing autonomous institutions were prepared by UGC regulation in 1973, and the first autonomous college was established in 1978. Nevertheless, autonomous colleges have increased in the last decades, from 324 in 2009 to 595 in 2017. There are 979 autonomous institutions in 2023, of which 86 percent of autonomous colleges are located in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka. The rise of autonomous institutions in India has also raised several policy concerns, including the need for financing to build infrastructure and problems connecting with affiliating universities and state governments. The issues of autonomous colleges must be heard and addressed with appropriate policy intervention from the stakeholders, including UGC.

The setting up of autonomous institutions is necessary for achieving the objectives laid out in NEP 2020. For that, curriculum change must address the expanding demands of industry and students since these factors contribute to the issue of employability and youth unemployment. It should be noted that 55 autonomous colleges performed exceptionally well in the NIRF ranking 2023 and placed in the category of "colleges", with ranks ranging between 1 and 100. Moreover, six autonomous teams performed exceptionally well in the ranking and were placed among the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs). Furthermore, the most highly regarded universities in the "engineering" category are autonomous colleges.

However, the issues raised in the experience of autonomous colleges have not yet been adequately addressed. Despite the UGC’s suggestion for college autonomy, several affiliating universities are reluctant to cede sovereignty and control autonomous institutions in the same manner as they deal with affiliated colleges. There is evidence that affiliating universities allow autonomous colleges to modify only a maximum of 20%–35% of their curriculum, charging arbitrary fees for various procedures and creating unnecessary delays from affiliated universities in dealing with issues of autonomous colleges. Furthermore, the functioning of autonomous institutions is often undermined by excessive political meddling in nominating key positions to governing bodies and decision-making processes.

The budgetary allocations from the state or union government have historically been a significant funding source for many colleges in India. Financial sustainability must be ensured since autonomous institutions are expected to handle their own finances, which can be difficult without enough preparation and funding. Infrastructure funding is a genuine concern for the newly awarded autonomous colleges, and those worries have grown due to UGC’s decision to discontinue providing newly established autonomous colleges with an unconditional 20 lakh grant. This had been given to all newly awarded autonomous colleges without any restrictions, but the seed money facility was discontinued by the end of 12th plan of UGC. The significant financial burdens for newly awarded autonomous colleges come from infrastructure and human resources requirements, acquisition and management of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, and lab and related facilities upgrading. Therefore, UGC must monitor the issues of financial burden among autonomous institutions and must address the above issue through appropriate policy given the chance of transferring the burden to the students

The State Council for Higher Education must ensure the efficient execution of UGC’s rules and regulations related to autonomy. On the contrary, the affiliating Universities must understand how important it is to address concerns of autonomous colleges within the larger context of higher education reform. The successful functioning of autonomy requires collaboration amongst all stakeholders— including UGC, affiliating universities, the State higher education council, faculty, and students —which is essential for achieving the true spirit of autonomy.

(Authors: Dr. Justine George, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, St. Paul’s College, Kalamassery, Ernakulam, Kerala ; Dr. Savitha K.S, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, St. Paul’s College, Kalamassery, Ernakulam, Kerala)