UGC set to issue new guidelines for autonomous colleges this week

The University Grants Commission (UGC) is set to issue new guidelines for autonomous colleges for stakeholder feedback this coming week. The new regulations will allow autonomous colleges to prescribe their courses and syllabi, their own admission rules, and methods of assessment, among other provisions.

The provisions were drafted by an expert committee formed by the UGC for the purpose, and the committee’s recommendations were passed by the UGC in a meeting on September 22. The draft will be made public this Tuesday, and after stakeholder suggestions, will be adopted by the UGC. The previous provisions, ‘The University Grants Commission (Conferment of Autonomous Status Upon Colleges and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in Autonomous Colleges) Regulations, 2018’, were notified on February 12, 2018.

UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar told DH that the review of the norms is to align them with the recommendations of the National Education Policy 2020. These regulations, he said, provide greater freedom to autonomous colleges to determine their own courses.

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“They will have the freedom to restructure and redesign the courses to suit local needs, make it skill-oriented and in consonance with the job requirements,” Kumar said.

Autonomous colleges will also be able to prescribe their own admission rules, he said. “This includes evolving their methods of assessment, conducting examinations and notification of results; and promote research in relevant fields, among others,” he said.

Among the key changes is the relaxing of the provision of the time period for which the autonomous status will be granted. As per the draft rules, if the autonomous college has functioned as one for fifteen years continuously, it will be considered as autonomous college on a permanent basis. The college will, however, need to maintain the required grade and eligibility conditions of grading bodies like the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) or the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). As per earlier provisions, the autonomous status could be extended for five years after an initial period of 10 years.

Colleges can also now apply to its parent or affiliating university to be autonomous on the UGC’s portal, any time of the year. Earlier, the college’s proposal to its affiliating university should have been sent to the UGC within 30 days of the receipt of proposal to be eligible for further consideration. But, as per the new rules, if the affiliating university does not respond on the UGC portal within 30 days, then the UGC will presume that the university has no objection to the processing of the application.

While existing provisions state that an expert committee will inspect the college on the site and then inform the standing committee of the UGC, the new rules say that the UGC Standing Committee will examine the application on its own. Apart from that, while the old rules state that each college’s governing body must have a nominee from the UGC, the draft rules have removed the provision.