Affiliated colleges can directly approach UGC for autonomy
The UGC (Conferment
of Autonomous Status upon Colleges and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in
Autonomous Colleges) Regulations, 2022, will replace the 2018 regulations.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has approved the
revised guidelines to grant autonomy to affiliated and constituent colleges, officials
in the know of the development said on Sunday.
The UGC (Conferment of Autonomous Status upon Colleges
and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in Autonomous Colleges) Regulations,
2022, will replace the 2018 regulations. The draft of the revised regulations
was approved during the commission’s meeting held on September 22. HT on
September 1 reported that the regulator was working on revised rules to grant
autonomy to colleges.
Eligible colleges will now be able to submit applications
on the UGC portal anytime during the year, according to the regulations, a copy
of which is with HT.
“The parent (affiliated) university will examine the
application of the college for autonomous status on UGC portal and give its
recommendations along with reasons/justification, within 30 days on UGC
portal,” the draft regulations said. “If the University does not respond on the
UGC portal within 30 days, it shall be presumed that the University has no
objection.”
Under the 2018 regulations, colleges were supposed to
submit the proposal to the parent university, which were to forward it to the
commission within 30 days of receipt.
The eligibility criteria has not been changed. The
applicant colleges, whether aided, partially aided, unaided or self-financing,
must have at least 10 years of existence, and be accredited either by the
National Assessment and Accreditation Council with a minimum A grade (with a
score of 3.0 and above on a 4-point scale) or by the National Board of
Accreditation for at least three programmes, with a minimum score of 675.
The regulations have been revised with help from an
expert committee to align them with the recommendations of the National
Education Policy 2020, UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar said.
“These regulations provide freedom to the autonomous
colleges to determine and prescribe their own courses of study and syllabi, and
restructure and redesign the courses to suit local needs, make it
skill-oriented and in consonance with the job requirements,” Kumar said.
“Further, the autonomous college may prescribe their own admission rules,
evolve methods of assessment, conduct examinations and notification of result
and promote research in relevant fields.”
These new rules shall apply to all colleges and
institutions that are affiliated to, or are constituent colleges of
universities. While affiliated colleges work independently, constituent
colleges are maintained by the universities.
Among the other changes made by the commission, the
autonomous status of the college will be “automatically extended” if the
college maintains the eligibility requirements. The autonomy will be in
initially granted for 10 years.
“Colleges which have functioned as autonomous colleges
for 15 years continuously will be considered as autonomous colleges on a
permanent basis,” the draft regulations stated.
However, if the autonomous collages fail to maintain the
required standards, the autonomy will be “automatically withdrawn”, the draft
of the revised regulations stated.
Unlike previous regulations, the autonomous colleges
won’t be required to have a UGC committee in their governing bodies, and
university nominees in their finance committees.
The commission will release the revised regulations in
the public domain by Tuesday, seeking feedback from stakeholders. “We will
finalize this regulation after receiving feedback,” Kumar said.
“We are yet to receive a copy of the revised
regulations,” said Yogesh Singh, vice-chancellor of Delhi University. “We will
examine them and analyse how they will be applied in case of DU. We will send our feedback to the UGC after
going through the regulations.”
Source | Hindustan Times | 10 October
2022
Regards!
Librarian
Rizvi Institute of Management
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