MHRD gives ‘autonomous’ status to 60 institutes: JNU, HCU, Jadavpur on the list

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) granted Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) along with 60 other universities an “autonomous” status. Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar released the list of these institutes that have been provided larger autonomy from the norms of University Grants Commission (UGC). These institutes will now have different degrees of freedom for taking academic and administrative decisions.

Along with JNU, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Hyderabad Central University (known as HCU), Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Jadavpur University, Panjab University, Symbiosis International in Pune and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) are on the list. Under the new norms, these autonomous institutes are allowed to start their own courses, departments and even collaborate with top 500 foreign universities without the UGC’s permission.

Javadekar told the media, “The graded autonomy gives institutions the freedom to start new courses, new departments, off-campus centres, research parks, appoint foreign faculty, admit foreign students, pay variable incentive packages to their teachers and enter into academic collaboration with top 500 universities of the world without seeking UGC’s permission.”

The autonomous status to these universities and institutions have been provided under the UGC’s new regulation on ‘Categorization of Universities for Grant of Graded Autonomy’. This regulation is said to provide greater autonomy to institutions under three categories based on their NAAC accreditation score.

‘Category 1’ autonomy status has been provided to institutions that were able to maintain 3.5 or above NAAC grade rankings or were among the top 50 institutions of National Institutions Ranking Framework (NIRF) for two consecutive years. These institutes are now exempted from regular inspections of the UGC, can collaborate with foreign educational institutes and would be reviewed on the basis of self-reporting. These institutions can now start new courses, departments and schools without the UGC approval.

Institutes under ‘category 2’ have lesser autonomy. For instance, they would need the UGC’s approval for MoUs with foreign institutes.

Teachers’ associations in a few central universities have expressed their discomfort with the graded autonomous categorisation scheme – especially those aimed to provide autonomy to colleges. The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) is already protesting against the UGC and the MHRD’s move.