Upgrade outstanding colleges to universities, proposes panel

Updated on: Friday, March 18, 2011

At a time when the fate of deemed universities is hanging in the balance, a high-power committee has recommended that established colleges with a good track record be elevated universities in a phased manner, giving them time to organise themselves for the new challenge.

The committee set up to “Evolve a Comprehensive Policy for Autonomy of Central Educational Institutions” has said the system of affiliation (of colleges to universities) has let down academic standards in both affiliated and affiliating universities. “It is not conducive to continue the system in the present circumstances.”

Appropriate step

Given the need for increasing the number of universities, it is only appropriate that established colleges be elevated, the committee has said. In certain States, a cluster of institutions may jointly be given the status of a university or at least may remain autonomous in academic and administrative matters.

Further, the Central Educational Institutions (CEIs) should be permitted to hire eminent faculty from anywhere irrespective of the citizenship of the candidate, and decide on the fees to be charged and scholarships to be granted. Recoveries should be made subject to the broad policy and guidelines of the government, said the committee headed by N.R. Madhava Menon.

The CEIs should be free to invite distinguished citizens from any part of the world to receive an honorary doctorate after approval from their Academic and Executive Councils. But “to ensure that the government is not put to any embarrassment, the decision to confer honorary degrees should be conveyed to the Human Resource Development Ministry, which, in turn, must send its concurrence within one month. Thereafter, the decision may be deemed to have approval.

The institutions should be given greater flexibility in managing their finances, and the annual grant revised every year based on their academic and financial performance, even as they have the freedom to raise alternative funding, both internally and externally, subject to the general financial rules.

All Central universities must undergo a comprehensive review of their functioning once in 10 years by an External Peer Review Board (EPRB), to be constituted by the HRD Ministry from a large panel comprising eminent educationists, scientists, public figures and stalwarts from industry, living in India or abroad. “The Ministry shall use the EPRB as an instrument for extending additional support to allow the performing universities to evolve into higher levels of global excellence,” the committee said.

Upgrade outstanding colleges to universities, proposes panel

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