The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : University affiliation system an obsolete relic: Vice-Chancellor

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Saturday, Nov 10, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

University affiliation system an obsolete relic: Vice-Chancellor

Staff Reporter

‘Speed up the process of autonomy in individual colleges’

BANGALORe: “Dismantle the university affiliation system completely; it is an obsolete relic from colonial times.” This remark, from former Bangalore University Vice-Chancellor M.S. Thimmappa, echoed the general demand for academic freedom put to practice in small measures by the award of autonomous status to eight degree colleges in the city.

Inaugurating a University Grants Commission (UGC) sponsored seminar on “Autonomy: A Review” organised here on Friday by St. Joseph’s College, Mr. Thimmappa said the affiliation system persisted only in India and a few developing countries. With its heavy preoccupation with bureaucratic procedures and excessive centralisation, the affiliation set-up was a huge obstacle to the pursuit of excellence in India’s higher education scenario, he maintained.

The solution, according to Mr. Thimmappa, a key architect of the autonomy college process, was to speed up the process of granting the autonomous status to individual colleges. Excellence and relevance, he felt, could only be nurtured in an atmosphere of academic freedom. He cited the successful examples of institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management.The first batch of eight colleges granted autonomy from the Bangalore University, he noted, had done well so far, framing more relevant curricula, declaring results promptly and exercising their academic freedom more responsibly. St. Joseph’s College principal Fr. Ambrose Pinto said that with autonomy, things have changed. “Students belong to us and the responsibility of moulding them is with us, with the privileges of framing the syllabi and conducting the evaluation of students,” he said.

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