With the State universities burdened with administrative work of affiliating and managing large number of colleges, a University Grants Commission expert committee has recommended affiliation reforms to improve the quality of innovation and research — the prime function of a university system.
Some of the colleges in the country, for instance, the Osmania University or the Bangalore University have close to 1,000 colleges affiliated to them. “How would they manage these colleges and maintain standards?” asks S.P. Thyagarajan, chairman of the expert committee which authored the report on affiliation reforms.
The committee studied the existing system in India and abroad, compiled and analysed views emanating from consultative meetings, worked out on an action plan and has made recommendations. The reforms suggested would be used by the UGC while chalking out schemes for the XII Plan.
To diffuse the burden of affiliating universities, a gradual step-wise formula has been suggested. “Providing autonomy to colleges is the key,” says Mr. Thyagarajan. The report suggests that the maximum number of colleges to be affiliated to any university should be limited to 100.
Any college that has been NAAC-accredited with A grade for the last five years may be elevated to the status of an autonomous college. These colleges need to be monitored and if they maintain quality over another term they may be awarded the status of unitary university. This is done parallel to the accreditation process, says Mr. Thyagarajan.
Also the bigger universities that have more than one campus may be divided into smaller universities. “They need not lose their original stature, but be named based on the geographical location. The Mumbai University for instance may be named Mumbai North, South, and so on, as per the geographic location, while retaining the nomenclature ‘Mumbai University'” explains Mr. Thyagarajan.
Introducing the cluster college system is another suggestion made to improve the output of colleges. This would involve neighbouring universities sharing human and infrastructure resources with proper norms and funding support.
“The first step in bringing about a better system for affiliation is to distribute the task to more colleges. Then a monitoring system should be in place to ensure that the autonomous body carries out its duties, without compromising on quality of education,” explains Mr. Thyagarajan. For this, the report calls for the need for States to adopt and follow the UGC (Establishment and Maintenance of Private Universities) Regulations, 2010.
To make these recommendations a reality, there is need for the State Councils for Higher Education and the UGC to work in tandem, fix a timeframe to achieve specific targets during the XII plan period and ensure a monitoring mechanism consisting of experts in place.
