The Higher Education Department is planning to recommend an amendment to the provision in the Autonomy Act that states that a proposal submitted by an autonomous college for starting a new academic programme will be deemed to have been approved once the varsity concerned failed to convey its decision within 30 working days.
The move follows the recommendations included in a report on autonomous colleges prepared by a committee appointed by the Kerala State Higher Education Council (KSHEC).
It recommended that the university laws/regulations on starting a new programme shall be mandatorily followed by the autonomous colleges. The committee had recommended a comprehensive amendment to the Autonomy Act to ensure social justice and academic excellence in autonomous colleges. The department had found that a section of autonomous colleges had launched several academic programmes in the self-financing mode taking advantage of the deeming provision in the Act.
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The syndicates of the affiliating universities had informed the department that it could not even conduct the mandatory inspection to ascertain the academic and infrastructure facilities, considering the paucity of time to complete the formalities for approval of new courses within the 30-day deadline proposed in the Act.
Moreover, the department observed that the spike in self-financing courses in the aided sector undermined the government policy against sanctioning self-financing courses in the higher education sector.
In its report, the committee pointed out that the universities have to tighten their regulatory function in view of the proliferation of self-financing programmes in autonomous colleges.
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It recommended that the varsity concerned must give its decision to the autonomous colleges within 90 working days after the receipt of the application for starting a new programme. The deeming approval provision shall be used by the autonomous colleges only after this period, it said.
The report cited that many of the provisions of the University Laws (Third Amendment) Act, 2014, referred to as the Autonomy Act, were either contradictory or unclear. It could not ensure access, equity, and excellence in the realm of higher education in the State.