In a major policy initiative, the Centre has decided to allow 45 autonomous colleges in the country with A grade from NAAC the power to grant degrees, hiterto reserved for universities only.
These colleges will be converted into Universities by the end of XII Plan. All these colleges have already been awarded the status of centre of potential excellence.
The list of 45 colleges include the Nizam college Gunboundry, Hyderabad, St. Xavier College, Kolkata, Loyola College, Chennai, Jamshedpur Women's College, Mount Carmel College Bangalore, Institute of Excellence in Higher Education Bhopal, St Mira's College for Girls in Pune, Patkai Christian College, Dimapur and S S Jain Subodh P G College, Jaipur.
The UGC Act will be suitably amended to enable these colleges to award degrees, said officials in HRD Ministry after a meeting of the principals of the autonomous colleges.
The UGC standing Advisory Committee on Autonomous Colleges under the Chair of Prof Syed Hasnain will finalize its recommendations within two months including a draft Regulations for autonomous colleges.
The initiative comes in the backdrop of the government clearing the ambitious Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) programme last week, which seeks to convert automous colleges to state universities.
Autonomous colleges at present enjoy academic autonomy and are awarded a grant of Rs 20 lakh per annum. However, the colleges at the meeting today pressed for direct disburstment of funds from UGC and not through the state governments.
The meeting was chaired by Higher Education Secretary Ashok Thakur. HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju has put in his resignation after the Union Cabinet's decision to split Andhra Pradesh though the Prime Minister is yet to accept it.
According to officials, there are 441 autonomous colleges in 84 universities and 21 states. Out of these, 45 of them have been awarded the status of centre of potential excellence with A grade from National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
Automous colleges enjoy the freedom to determine and prescibe their own courses of study and syllabi, and restructure and redesign the courses to suit local needs.
