UGC grants autonomy to 8 colleges in Maharashtra, state tally rises to 68

From the next academic year, the new autonomous colleges can introduce their own curriculum and assessment method. All the institutes had scored 3.51 CGPA or more out of 4 during their last assessment by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC),

The University Grants Commission (UGC) recently granted academic autonomy to eight colleges in Maharashtra, of which three are from Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The number of autonomous institutes in the state is now 68.

Dr Bhanuben Mahendra Nanavati (BMN) College of Home Science, Matunga, became the first college affiliated to Shrimati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey (SNDT) Women’s University to get autonomy. Similarly, Hansraj Jivandas College of Education, Khar and Changu Kana Thakur (CKT) College, Panvel, were granted autonomy. Both the institutes are affiliated to the University of Mumbai (MU).

Apart from Dr Bhanuben Mahendra Nanavati College of Home Science, the other colleges to get the autonomous tag are –

Hansraj Jivandas College of Education, Khar.
Changu Kana Thakur College, Panvel.
Sir Parashurambhau College, Pune.
Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil Mahavidyalaya, Solapur.
Chhatrapati Shivaji College, Satara.
Sadguru Gadage Maharaj College Karad.
Tuljaram Chaturchand College, Baramati

In December, the UGC, the apex body of higher education, had accorded autonomy to Goregaon’s Patkar-Varde College and Matunga’s Guru Nanak Khalsa College. The UGC has been steering colleges towards autonomy over the last two years, giving the distinction to 68 institutions whose grade under the National Assessment and Accreditation Council was above 3.5 CGPA (cumulative grade point average).

From the next academic year, the new autonomous colleges can introduce their own curriculum and assessment method. They can also seek Rs 5 crore grant from Rashtriya Uchchatar Shikshan Abhiyan (RUSA) — a funding agency under the Centre.

“The objective behind seeking autonomy was to enhance our existing programmes as per industry needs, focus on skill development, modify assessment system, introduce online courses and need-based programmes,” said Shilpa Chirankar, principal, BMN College.

Sidheshwar Gadade, secretary, Janardhan Bhagat Shikshan Prasaran Sanstha, which runs CKT College, said the institute will offer a new curriculum for undergraduate and postgraduate courses at one go.

“We don’t need to make drastic changes to the existing Commerce curriculum. But curricula for Science and Arts will be updated. Also, we’ll allow 40% marks for internal assessment as compared 25% by the varsity. We’ll intend to strengthen and revise our diploma and certificate courses,” he said.

According to the state project directorate of RUSA, five more colleges from Maharashtra are likely to get autonomy by January-end.

“We are trying making colleges understand the benefits of autonomy. We want to create islands of excellence,” said a RUSA official.

To Boost Education Quality, UGC Pushes for Autonomous Colleges

According to data from UGC, the south Indian states account for a lion’ s share of colleges with autonomy status. Tamil Nadu with 183 colleges leads the pack, followed by Andhra Pradesh (97), Karnataka (70) and Telangana (59).

The University Grants Commission (UGC) , the regulator of the higher education sector, has pushed ahead with the strategy of providing autonomous status to the country’s better performing colleges, in an attempt to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the country’s higher education institutions.

Thus far this year, it has given the autonomous status to 37 colleges, taking the total number to 672 colleges across 106 universities. To be sure, this has been UGC’s long-time strategy: between 2007-08 and 2017-18, the number of autonomous colleges rose from 281 across 55 universities to 635 across 105.

Large states such as Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, with 11 and 5 autonomous colleges, lag behind. Interestingly, experts point out that Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan lag the southern states in various educational.

However, even for these colleges, the degree is awarded by the University with the name of the college on the degree certificate.

“Nearly, 40 colleges in districts across the country were granted autonomous status in the current year by the commission. We are also planning to make the process of applying for autonomous status online and comparatively simpler. It is felt that autonomy can provide a much needed boost to academic standards,” UGC secretary Rajnish Jain said.

Several top performing colleges have been given the autonomous college status in the course of this year, including Pune’s Ferguson College, Chennai’s Loyola College, L N Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, Mumbai and PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore, a government official said on condition of anonymity.

Respected Source – HT