The need of autonomy clearly stated in the Preamble of University Grants Commission (Conferment of Autonomous Status Upon Colleges and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in Autonomous Colleges) Regulations, 2023 which states that ‘the University Grants Commission (UGC) is mandated to coordinate and determine the standards of higher education in universities, Whereas college autonomy is instrumental in promoting broad-based quality education and excellence , and whereas there is a need to promote the autonomy of colleges so as to enhance the quality of higher education in the country’.
The need and objective of autonomy envisaged in National Education Policy 2020 which was approved by the Union Cabinet of India on 29th of July 2020. It outlines the vision of India’s new education system.
NEP 2020 has been formulated after an unprecedented process of consultations that involved nearly 2 lakh suggestions from 2.5 lakh Gram panchayats, 6600 blocks, 6000 ULB’s, 676 Districts.
The MHRD (now Ministry of Education) initiated an unprecedented collaborative, inclusive and highly participative consultation process from January 2015.
On May 2016, a Committee for ‘Evolution of New Education Policy’ under the chairmanship of Late Shri T.S.R. Subramaniam, former cabinet secretary submitted its report.
Based on this report, the ministry prepared some inputs for ‘Draft National Education Policy 2016’.
In June 2017 a committee for ‘Draft National Education Policy’ was constituted under the chairmanship of eminent scientist Padma Vibhushan, Dr. K. Kasturirangan which submitted ‘Draft National Education Policy 2019’ to MHRD minister (now minister of Education) on 31st May 2019. This was uploaded on MHRD website atMyGov initiative portal inviting views/suggestions and comments of stakeholders including Public.
The National Education Policy 2020(NEP-2020)aims at complete overhaul of the Higher Education to overcome the challenges that have been identified by various committees in order to deliver high quality education.The new regulation system that is envisaged under the policy is with regard to promote and constitute autonomous degree-granting colleges in a stage wise mechanism for granting graded autonomy to colleges.
The importance of graded autonomy has been expressed by the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi-
‘Through the graded autonomy concept also the attempt is to encourage healthy competition between every college, university and reward those institutions which perform better’.
NEP 2020 identified some of the major problems currently faced by the higher education system in India which includes-
- A rigid separation of disciplines, with early specialisation and streaming of students into narrow areas of study.
- Limited teacher and institutional autonomy.
- Suboptimal governance and leadership of HEIs.
- Large affiliating universities resulting in low standards of undergraduate education.
- Less emphasis on the development of cognitive skills and learning outcomes.
This policy (NEP-2020) envisions a complete overhaul and re-energising of higher education system to overcome their challenges and thereby deliver highest quality higher education with equity and inclusion.
The policy’s vision include the following key changes to the current system specially with regards to autonomy –
- Moving towards a higher education system consisting of large, multidisciplinary, universities and colleges.
- Moving towards a more multidisciplinary undergraduate education.
- Moving towards faculty and institutional autonomy.
- Governance of HEIs by high qualified independent boards having academic and administrative autonomy.
The policy (NEP-2020) envisions that this will happen by Institutional restructuring and consolidation-
- Moving to large multidisciplinary universities and HEI clusters is thus the highest recommendation of this policy regarding the structure of higher education. The ancient Indian universities Takshashila, Nalanda, Vallabhi, and Vikramshila, which had thousands of students from India and the world studying in vibrant multidisciplinary environments, amply demonstrated the type of great success that large multidisciplinary research and teaching universities could bring. India urgently needs to bring back this great Indian tradition to create well-rounded and innovative individuals, and which is already transforming other countries educationally and economically.
- This vision of higher education will require, in particular, a new conceptual perception/understanding for what constitutes a higher education institution (HEI), i.e., a university or a college. A university will mean a multidisciplinary institution of higher learning that offers undergraduate and graduate programmes, with high quality teaching, research, and community engagement. The definition of university will thus allow a spectrum of institutions that range from those that place equal emphasis on teaching and research i.e., Research-intensive Universities, those that place greater emphasis on teaching but still conduct significant research i.e. Teaching-intensive Universities. Meanwhile, an Autonomous degree-granting College (AC) will refer to a large multidisciplinary institution of higher learning that grants undergraduate degrees and is primarily focused on undergraduate teaching though it would not be restricted to that and it need not be restricted to that and it would generally be smaller than a typical university.
- A stage-wise mechanism for granting graded autonomy to colleges, through a transparent system of graded accreditation, will be established. Colleges will be encouraged, mentored, supported, and incentivized to gradually attain the minimum benchmarks required for each level of accreditation. Over a period of time, it is envisaged that every college would develop into either an Autonomous degree-granting College, or a constituent college of a university – in the latter case, it would be fully a part of the university. With appropriate accreditations, Autonomous degree-granting Colleges could evolve into Research-intensive or Teaching-intensive Universities, if they so aspire.
- It must be clearly stated that these three broad types of institutions are not in any natural way a rigid, exclusionary categorization, but are along a continuum. HEIs will have the autonomy and freedom to move gradually from one category to another, based on their plans, actions, and effectiveness. The most salient marker for these categories of institutions will be the focus of their goals and work. The Accreditation System will develop and use appropriately different and relevant norms across this range of HEIs. However, the expectations of high quality of education, and of teaching-learning, across all HEIs will be the same.