Odisha HRD

… the State Department for Higher Education decided to recommend up to 100 colleges in the state for academic autonomy; in other words, freedom from the university prescribed curricula. Autonomy would enable a college to introduce internationally accepted semester system and grading for students used in foreign institutions.

It is going to ask 58 colleges which have got ‘A’ grade and above from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council to submit proposals for autonomy. Of these 58, about 20 are Mumbai colleges.

Besides, pleas of 42 colleges that have already applied for autonomy years ago, including Mumbai’s St Xavier’s and the Government Law College, will be looked into.

“Academic autonomy will allow colleges to not just design their own courses, but also have contact with professionals from whom they can take industry inputs. Our department will ask colleges to prepare a proposal for academic autonomy. The proposal will then be submitted to the university to be forwarded to the state government with its recommendations,” said K.M. Kulkarni, director for higher education.

“With the government nod, the proposal will then be forwarded to the University Grants Commission (UGC) who in turn will send a committee for college inspection.”

With the possibility of foreign universities setting shop in India soon, autonomy would allow colleges to collaborate with these universities. The process for granting autonomy, if followed up seriously, can take about an year.

“Autonomous colleges will have industry professionals on their governing board, and there could be tailor-made courses to create skilled professionals for the industry,” said Kulkarni.

Maharashtra has only eight autonomous colleges — dismal compared with Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh or Madhya Pradesh with 85, 31, 34 and 27 respectively. “It is good for colleges that want to innovate. The UGC would like to see at least 50 colleges in the state getting academic autonomy in the next three years,” said UGC Deputy Secretary for Western Region G. Srinivas.

Students graduating from autonomous colleges will be awarded degrees from the parent university with the name of the college mentioned. “This would give the colleges more credibility as well.

The three-year Bachelor of Science course could soon be phased out across the country and replaced by a four-year BS course based on the American model.

In the new course, students in the first year will study core science subjects.

From the second year they will specialise and choose their electives.

The Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institutes of Technology could be the first ones to introduce the four-year programme.

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The proposal is the brainchild of the National Knowledge Commission, which is headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.