Modi’s HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar Is Unshackling India’s Higher Education From Sarkari Control Like Never Before

In a landmark decision, the Minister of Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar, yesterday (20 March) announced the decision of the University Grants Commission (UGC) to grant autonomy to 60 higher educational institutes – 52 universities and eight colleges.

These are institutes that have maintained good academic standards in terms of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) score or a corresponding score from a reputed accreditation agency empaneled by the UGC, or reputed world rankings.

Announcing the grant of autonomy to these institutes, Javadekar said the government was striving to introduce a liberalised regime in the education sector and the emphasis was on linking autonomy with quality.

He also said: “Although these universities will remain within the UGC’s ambit, they will have the freedom to launch new courses, off-campus centres, skill development courses, research parks and new academic programmes. They will also have the freedom to hire foreign faculty members, enrol foreign students, give incentive-based emoluments to faculty members, enter into academic collaborations and run open-distance learning programmes.”

Here’s what it means

University categorisation

The UGC will categorise universities into three sections: Category-I, Category-II, and Category-III, based on the list of parameters.

1. Category-I: If it has been accredited by NAAC with a score of 3.51 or above, or has received a corresponding accreditation grade/score from a reputed accreditation agency. Alternatively, an institute will fall under Category-I if it has been ranked among the top 500 in reputed world rankings, such as Times Higher Education or QS World University Rankings.

2. Category-II: If it has been accredited by NAAC with a score between 3.26 and 3.50, or has received a corresponding accreditation grade/score from a reputed accreditation agency.

3. Category-III: Institutes which are neither in Category-I or Category-II.

Autonomy dimensions

The complete list of all the 52 universities and eight colleges that have been put in the top two categories is as follows:

From the Right to Education to scholarships, the Indian education sector is hobbled by minorityism. And while Javadekar has done little to set right this brazenly discriminatory legal regime, he certainly deserves credit for his attempt to unshackle higher education from the tyrannical state control.

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