By Nikta Mary Mathew and Dr Martin Patrick
Centre for Public Policy Research
This study is an attempt to analyse the functioning of autonomous colleges, granted in 2014, in Kerala to infer if the quality of education has seen an improvement in these colleges. The study aims to collect information from four colleges in Ernakulam, Kerala, of which three are private autonomies and one is government autono
my. Rajagiri College, Sacred Heart College, St. Teresa’s College and Maharaja’s College (government) are the colleges covered under the study.
At the outset, the nature of autonomy granted is largely academic autonomy. No financial autonomy is granted to these colleges. There are well-structured bodies such as the Governing Council, Academic Council and Board of Studies in all the colleges, as per the guidelines of the U
niversity Laws Act. There are commendable infrastructural developments in the colleges but they were not a significant achievement of autonomy. On the contrary, the availability of commendable infrastructure enabled the colleges to gain the status of autonomy. The admission
procedure to autonomous colleges continues to remain transparent for general merit seats and reservation seats for aided courses, while admission to self-financed courses in private autonomous colleges takes place with the discretion of the management. The management collects huge donations for management seats and donations have tremendously gone up in the private autonomous colleges, after they were granted autonomy. This trend shows the status of autonomy bestows a perceptional difference. This is attributed to the wide variation in college fee collected by the private aided colleges and the government college. Though both private and government colleges charge same fee for aided courses in principle, the reality is different. This is a great anomaly, which is not properly addressed by the university, though there is sound legal framework. The fee for unaided courses in private autonomous colleges is three times greater than the fee in the government college.
Academic quality has been analysed in terms of revision of curricula, introduction of new courses, teaching methods, evaluation methods and publishing results. The faculty of the colleges opined that the decentralised system of decision making in academic matters is the greatest advantage of academic autonomy. The opportunity to participate in curricula revision at an individual level is an exciting challenge welcomed by the teachers. Still, there are some looming issues in the sector. All colleges have made 20 to 25 per cent changes in the university syllabus with the approval of the university. Though there is no written rule, colleges are advised to maintain 75 per cent parity with the university syllabus. All private autonomous colleges have introduced new, self-financed courses. On an average, three new courses each were introduced in the period after being granted autonomy. But the new courses had to be approved by the university, which was a time consuming and laborious task. The University Laws Act prescribes that it is mandatory for the university to respond to a proposal forwarded by the college within 30 working days, failure of which deems the proposal approved. The college authorities stated that they were not getting the approval from the university on time. At times, the university raised objections to the new courses after the stipulated time, which hindered the smooth conduct of the courses. Though the management do no protest against the objections, it vouches for a definite notification within the stipulated time.
The autonomous colleges have seen a spurt in admissions to self-financed courses that were introduced after gaining autonomy. The colleges provide students with a wide range of options within a course, which is welcomed by the students. New and innovative methods of teaching are rarely practised, while traditional teaching methods are successfully followed.
In the case of the faculty of autonomous colleges, the burden on the teacher has increased as they undertake a large amount of administrative works, which demand the recruitment of more clerical workers. A section of students in the government autonomous college pointed out that the administrative responsibility on teachers has deteriorated the quality of lectures and have expressed their dissatisfaction in this regard. The colleges have done well in addressing the apprehensions on the credibility of examinations by adopting the method of ‘double evaluation’, wherein the evaluation is carried out at two levels, internally and by external examiners. The students consider publishing results on time as the biggest advantage of autonomy.
There has been no significant improvement in research and development among students and teachers. Most of the initiatives to encourage research work were in place even before being granted autonomy and hence cannot be attributed to the same. Internships and placements are not up to the desired level and hence steps should be taken to promote them rigorously. Social commitment as part of the curriculum of certain social science disciplines in the women’s college is praiseworthy.
The constraints that the autonomous colleges face are primarily attributed to the lack of enthusiasm of the university. There is less demand for financial autonomy among all stakeholders but private autonomous colleges demand more funds to conduct examinations and for research and development.
Suggestions
It is necessary to define the criteria for the approval of courses by the university. The university must be required by law to provide valid reasons for the rejection of proposal for the introduction of new courses. Stricter laws must be laid down to prevent delayed responses by the university. This will ensure the quality of courses and that the university rejects proposals for new courses, only if it can be satisfactorily justified.
Grading of colleges is to be implemented for the better functioning of autonomous colleges. Colleges can be graded based on academic and infrastructural facilities as well as social commitment. The fee ceiling should be prescribed for various grades of colleges separately. This will motivate colleges to excel in these criteria and ensure that there is an external control on the fee charged.
The concept of cluster colleges and granting of autonomy to cluster colleges can be considered as an alternative for the improvement of middle level colleges and colleges that do not come under the purview of autonomous colleges. This can be considered for government colleges in the initial phase. Voucher system can also be adopted for the benefit of poor students.
To conclude, the higher education sector demands qualitative improvement, which can be realised through thoughtful reforms in the sector. Granting autonomy is the first step, which should be accompanied by a host of other reforms. The study confirms the need for autonomy but the pitfalls have to be corrected urgently to realise the goals of higher education. Scepticism exists regarding greater financial autonomy that could allow colleges to exclude economically poor students with high fee structure and evaluation methods losing their transparency.