Has college autonomy yielded results?
A.N. LAKSHMANAN
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It is time the UGC undertook a review of the actual functioning of these institutions
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The scheme of autonomy of colleges was introduced over four decades ago by the University Grants Commission with the hope of restoring active knowledge engagement and development of related skills and interests as the core of education in place of the syllabus-examinations-degree farce it had become in our 100 year old (then) system of affiliated colleges under the universities.
Over the years many colleges have been granted autonomy under the scheme, but most of them have done little of real significance in terms of education as a tool for personal and societal development and as a process for the creation and use of knowledge as a resource for advancement.
The reasons for this failure are many. At the national level, the country’s policies are not such as to provide rewards and incentives (career paths and institutionalised arrangements for productive engagement) for those trained in new programmes of learning. At the institutional level, the lack of resources is often a constraint for autonomous colleges to embark upon innovative programme ventures.
The hangover of habits and patterns from the university system (the disciplinary departments for instance) and its continuing control through the affiliation norms and other guidelines inhibit any far-reaching change initiatives.
The UGC itself has perhaps contributed to the continuance of the university tradition and approaches by requiring the autonomous colleges to form academic bodies (viz. Academic Council, Boards of Studies, Examination Committee, etc.) with the same nomenclature as in the university.
Many autonomous colleges therefore do exactly what the university used to do — frame syllabuses and conduct examinations and have formal once a year meetings of their Academic Councils, throwing in some cosmetic changes such as minor examination reforms, a little bit of specialisation, etc.
Innovative barrenness
The main reason for innovative barrenness of autonomous institutions has been that the faculty are not clear about what is required of them.
It is time that the UGC undertook a review of the actual functioning and achievements of these colleges vis-À-vis the objectives of granting autonomy which briefly are as follows:
* Formulation of new programmes of study to match societal needs, and emerging occupational and development areas, and scientific curriculum design in the light of well defined objectives and criteria so as to provide for a diversity of vocational/research orientations.
* Effective development of the needed knowledge, abilities and skills through appropriate curricular elements, and imaginative use of appropriate resources (including net resources, business/industry resources, specialised external training agencies).
* Providing for student choice and interests in terms of electives, combinations/streams, flexibility in time frames, etc.
* Achievement of teaching-learning effectiveness through appropriate curricular methodologies and assessment methods including examination reform.
On the basis of such a review the UGC can play a proactive role in the following ways:
i) Arrange training programmes for autonomous college teachers and administrators, and disseminate information on new kinds of programmes and curricular innovations.
ii) Invite proposals for liberal grants for offering innovative programmes.
iii) Develop new norms and mechanisms for approval of degree programmes with substantial career content and training component involving use of external, industry/business resources of expertise and practice.
This last aspect is a very important one. The universities with their disciplinary divisions of knowledge and academic traditions of scholarship are unequal to the task of developing and of overseeing programmes for the rapidly expanding tertiary educational needs involving a growing and wide variety of skills and capabilities and inter disciplinary and functional mixes of knowledge.
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