NAAC-affiliated institutes should become autonomous: Chairman
5 May 2018 5:54 PM GMT
Kolkata: AICTE Chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe on Saturday made a strong pitch for autonomy of NAAC-affiliated institutions in the country and said that more and more institutions should become autonomous in the days to come.
"When any institution which gets accredited with a level that is beyond a threshold, they should be given autonomy automatically, whether the faculties or the institutions or the University want it or not. I think that is the way forward," Sahasrabudhe said while addressing a press conference following an event in Kolkata titled "Millennial Learning Educational Strategies for the Gen Next" organised by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and Sister Nivedita University.
According to Sahasrabudhe presently only 15 percent of institutions in the country have autonomy. "This should go up at least to 40 percent in the next few years and in a decade it may go up to even 100 percent," he maintained.
Responding to a poser about a number of institutions' hesitancy in going for autonomy, he said: "I am aware of this. It is all about mindset. Some amount of work will definitely increase if autonomy is given. "Institutions will have to set your curriculum and set questions but you in that place can have lot of freedom, lot of advantages. The problem at some government institutions is that they apprehend if autonomy is given, then the government funding will lessen and it will be similar to a private college. But this is an uncalled for fear," he said.
The AICTE Chairman also harped on cutting short the process of granting autonomy to an institution that usually takes two years now. There are presently 40,000 colleges and 850 universities across the country.
Stressing on the need for bonhomie between students and teachers, he said AICTE has introduced three weeks' orientation programme for the students in all its affiliated institutions. "We are also engaging teacher training programmes and there had been encouraging response in the past five-six years."
He also mentioned that the AICTE has constituted a committee to suggest reforms for examinations. Open book examination, defining of learning outcomes, introduction of educational experiences to teach and assess professional outcomes including open-ended experiments in laboratories and project-based learning modules and internship
experiences have been recommended to the HRD Ministry. The recommendations are being examined by the ministry," he added.
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