Affiliated colleges can directly approach UGC for autonomy

The UGC (Conferment of Autonomous Status upon Colleges and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in Autonomous Colleges) Regulations, 2022, will replace the 2018 regulations.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has approved the revised guidelines to grant autonomy to affiliated and constituent colleges, officials in the know of the development said on Sunday.

Under the 2018 regulations, colleges were supposed to submit the proposal to the parent university, which were to forward it to the commission within 30 days of receipt. (HT Archives)

Now, the affiliated and constituent colleges will be able to directly approach the commission seeking academic and administrative independence anytime during the year, the officials citied above said.

The UGC (Conferment of Autonomous Status upon Colleges and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in Autonomous Colleges) Regulations, 2022, will replace the 2018 regulations. The draft of the revised regulations was approved during the commission’s meeting held on September 22. HT on September 1 reported that the regulator was working on revised rules to grant autonomy to colleges.

Eligible colleges will now be able to submit applications on the UGC portal anytime during the year, according to the regulations, a copy of which is with HT.

“The parent (affiliated) university will examine the application of the college for autonomous status on UGC portal and give its recommendations along with reasons/justification, within 30 days on UGC portal,” the draft regulations said. “If the University does not respond on the UGC portal within 30 days, it shall be presumed that the University has no objection.”

Under the 2018 regulations, colleges were supposed to submit the proposal to the parent university, which were to forward it to the commission within 30 days of receipt.

The eligibility criteria has not been changed. The applicant colleges, whether aided, partially aided, unaided or self-financing, must have at least 10 years of existence, and be accredited either by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council with a minimum A grade (with a score of 3.0 and above on a 4-point scale) or by the National Board of Accreditation for at least three programmes, with a minimum score of 675.

The regulations have been revised with help from an expert committee to align them with the recommendations of the National Education Policy 2020, UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar said.

“These regulations provide freedom to the autonomous colleges to determine and prescribe their own courses of study and syllabi, and restructure and redesign the courses to suit local needs, make it skill-oriented and in consonance with the job requirements,” Kumar said. “Further, the autonomous college may prescribe their own admission rules, evolve methods of assessment, conduct examinations and notification of result and promote research in relevant fields.”

These new rules shall apply to all colleges and institutions that are affiliated to, or are constituent colleges of universities. While affiliated colleges work independently, constituent colleges are maintained by the universities.

Among the other changes made by the commission, the autonomous status of the college will be “automatically extended” if the college maintains the eligibility requirements. The autonomy will be in initially granted for 10 years.

“Colleges which have functioned as autonomous colleges for 15 years continuously will be considered as autonomous colleges on a permanent basis,” the draft regulations stated.

However, if the autonomous collages fail to maintain the required standards, the autonomy will be “automatically withdrawn”, the draft of the revised regulations stated.

Unlike previous regulations, the autonomous colleges won’t be required to have a UGC committee in their governing bodies, and university nominees in their finance committees.

The commission will release the revised regulations in the public domain by Tuesday, seeking feedback from stakeholders. “We will finalize this regulation after receiving feedback,” Kumar said.

“We are yet to receive a copy of the revised regulations,” said Yogesh Singh, vice-chancellor of Delhi University. “We will examine them and analyse how they will be applied in case of DU. We will send our feedback to the UGC after going through the regulations.”

In 2018, two Delhi University colleges — St Stephen’s and Hindu College — had approached the university and the education ministry, seeking autonomy. However, the matter could not be considered because it required amendments in the Delhi University Act, 1922.