AUTONOMY AND ITs

EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION
Dr. S. Kandasamy,
M.E(Struct).,Ph.D ., F.I.E.,
Dean Civil Engineering.
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what
one has learned in school...
- Albert Einstein
 Autonomy in
Indian Educational System-HISTORY
Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE)
Committee On Autonomy of Higher Education
Institutions.
The Committee on Standards of University
Education under the Chairmanship of Prof.
S.K.Sidhanta (1965) emphasized the need for
introducing autonomy.
The first formal and specific recommendations
on college autonomy appeared in the Report of
the Education Commission (1964-66) under the
chairmanship of Prof. D.S.Kothari.
 HISTORY
In India, the University system, as we see
today, originated about a century and half ago
with the establishment of universities at
Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Allahabad and
Lahore between 1857 and 1902.
These were modeled after the British
Universities of that period.
 History
UGC appointed a high level committee consisting
of Dr. D.S. Kothari, Dr.P.B.Gajendragadkar,
Dr.A.C.Joshi, Dr.A.L..Mudaliar, Shri.P.N.Kirpal,
Dr.B.Malik, Dr.K.L.Shrimali, Dr.R.K.Singh, Shri.
J.P.Naik and Shri.K.L.Joshi
to examine the feasibility and mechanism for
implementing the recommendations of the
Education Commission (1964-66) regarding
Autonomous Colleges.
No significant change taken place till 1978.
Professional Education pattern in Tamil
Nadu1970
Switched over from integrated pattern to
semester system.
Internal assessment was done-not mentioned
in marksheet.
Govt. and Govt-Aided Engineering Colleges
are Under Administrative Control of DOTE
&Affiliated to Madras and Madurai
Universities.
TNAU and Annamalai Univ. Engg collgge
 The Senerio in 1970s
Dr.Malcolm Adiseshiah, former Vice-Chancellor of
Madras University and Former Chairman of the
Madras Institute of Development Studies
characterized this as follows:
Everybody is in favour of autonomous colleges.
Yet they have been non-starters because
everyone, including the colleges, is afraid of
disturbing the dismal but demanding status quo.
 Due to the efforts of the Madras University and the
Madurai Kamaraj University in 1978, the
Tamil Nadu Legislature amended their University Acts
providing for autonomous colleges.
By June 1978, eight colleges of Madras University and
four colleges under Madurai Kamaraj University started
functioning as autonomous colleges.
In 1984, after concerted efforts, there were only 21
autonomous colleges in the country, 16 in Tamil Nadu,
one in Bihar, two in Andhra Pradesh, one in Gujarat,
and one in Madhya Pradesh.
 1978 College of Engineering Guindy
becomes UNITARY TYPE UNIVERSITY
The PG programme of GCT were awarded
autonomy.
1987 onawards most of the programmes GCT,
PSG, CIT, TCE Autonomous.
Simultaneously during 1984 onwards Self
Financing colleges were started in Tamil Nadu
 UGC Guidelines
UGC Guidelines (2003) on the scheme of autonomous
colleges spelt out the objectives of autonomy as:
to determine its own courses of study and syllabi;
to prescribe rules of admission, subject to the
reservation policy of the state governments;
to evolve methods of evaluation and to conduct
examination;
to achieve higher standards and greater creativity;
to promote national integration; and
to ensure accountability of the institution and its
members.
 Concept of Autonomy
The concept of autonomy is a structural solution intended
mainly to provide an enabling environment to improve and
strengthen the teaching and learning process.

The essential factors for high quality education are,

the caliber and attitudes of students towards learning,
the competence and commitment of teachers towards
educational processes,
the flexibility and foresightedness of the governance system
and
the social credibility of the educational outcome.

The autonomy is expected to provide a better framework for

fostering these factors than the affiliation system with all its
constraining conditions hanging as a dead weight on the
higher education system.
 Autonomy alone may not guarantee higher
quality, just as non-autonomy need not
preclude better performance.
At the core of the concept of autonomy is the
decentralized management culture.
The delegation of responsibility with
Accountability for the academic as well as the
associated management functions is essential
for the success of autonomy.
 Autonomy and Accountability
Autonomy should necessarily lead to
excellence in academics, governance and
financial management of the institutions. If it
does not lead to this, it can be safely
concluded that autonomy has been misused.
Academic autonomy
Administrative autonomy
Financial autonomy
 Autonomy
categories
Academic autonomy is the freedom to decide academic issues like
curriculum, instructional material, pedagogy, techniques of students
evaluation.
Administrative autonomy is the freedom to institution to manage its own
affairs in regard to administration. It is the freedom to manage the affairs
in such a way that it stimulates and encourages initiative and development
of individuals working in the institutions and thereby of the institution
itself.
Financial autonomy is the freedom to the institution to expend the
financial resources at its disposal in a prudent way keeping in view its
priorities.
Autonomy and accountability are two sides of the same coin.
Accountability enables the institutions to regulate the freedom given to
them by way of autonomy.
 Aspects Relevant to Autonomy and
Accountability
Autonomy is self-regulation providing responsible exercise of decision-
making freedom with full commitment for accountability, and not just
decentralisation of selected powers.
Accountability is the academic, administrative and financial responsibility
with defined goals for each constituent namely teachers, students,
administrative staff and all others aiming towards providing quality
education for the betterment of the society.
The yardstick of measurement of accountability includes self-regulated or
agency-regulated adherence to rules; self-motivated efforts towards
accountability and pro-active role in conceiving and implementing
innovations.
The types of accountability would involve individual category-oriented
accountability; intra-institutional and inter-institutional accountability,
and system oriented accountability
 The strengths of ideal autonomy

Innovations.
Experimentation.
Expansion and maximization of potentials.
Quality improvement.
Societal relevance.
Full involvement of teachers in the entire system.
Confidence building between students and teachers.
Transparency in teaching and evaluation.
Increased scope for educational reforms.
Speedy implementation of programmes.
 The strengths of achieving
accountability
Quality sustenance and quality enhancement in higher
education
Student feed back mechanism to facilitate system oriented
quality improvements
Teachers self appraisal to achieve building of confidence
and capacity.
Setting up of benchmarks of accountability and quality.
Checks and balances for monitoring accountability and
quality
Appraisal to get oriented towards the entire system of
higher education.
 Bench Marks of Autonomy and
Accountability
The benchmarks developed by NAAC need to be effectively put in practice in
all higher education institutions. Briefly they include:
Willingness to accept ownership on quality matters to be achieved by self
and peer appraisal of teachers, students and programmes.
Increase of peer opinion in higher education.
Restructuring of curricula to update knowledge along with good
communication, managerial and entrepreneurship skills and employability.
Updated teaching-learning methods and modules
Improved documentation utilizing the advances of information technology.
Improved student services in IT based learning resources and support
services.
Healthy practices and greater involvement of students, parents and alumni
 Each institution should spell out the following in
the beginning of the academic session:
i) The details of course offering in each area.
ii) Distribution of course offering in different
semesters.
iii) Examination schedule and schedule of
declaration of results.
iv) Assigning course offerings by individual
faculty.
 Institutions may expedite the setting up of
internal mechanism with regard to the following
issues:
i) Resource generation.
ii) Financial disclosure standards.
iii) Establishing/Strengthening of Internal Audit
System.
iv) Norms for consultancy assignments.
v) Setting up of Internal Quality Assurance Cells.
 Recommendations
Report of the Central Advisory Board of
Education (CABE) Committee On
Autonomy of Higher Education Institutions
Submiited to
Ministry of Human Resource Development
Department of Secondary and Higher Education
Government of India New Delhi-110001.
JUNE 2005
Steps for Effective Implementation
Universities Will suggest Guidelines and
Frameworks
Institutes can design their own curriculum and
syllabi, and do continuous
modernization/upgradation. etc.
Apex bodies like UGC, AICTE may evolve
appropriate mechanisms of overseeing the
quality of curricular changes envisaged by the
institutions and provide feedback for
improvement wherever required.
 CORE/FRONTIER &Other areas
Academic autonomy while ensuring that new frontier areas
of knowledge are included in the revised curriculum,
it should also ensure that such an exercise does not
simultaneously lead to precluding certain other subject
areas of vital concern such as
environmental education, consumer education, human
rights education, education in human values, population
education, gender equality, disaster management and
other related topics as a part of the undergraduate
curriculum.
There could also be a compulsory outreach programme in
all higher education institutions that links them to the
society at large.
 The universities and colleges should focus equally on
academic and job-oriented courses while planning for
new programmes to make higher education relevant for
the world of work.
They should also create opportunities for students to
pursue utility-oriented certificate and diploma
programmes along with their formal degree programmes.
Entrepreneurial education should be encouraged in all
higher education institutions with a view to facilitating
self-employment rather than wage employment in the
country.
 Institutions of higher education should have the
autonomy to adopt continuous and comprehensive
system of students evaluation with the sole objective
of facilitating the acquisition of learning outcomes to
the level of mastery, discouraging students getting into
selective short cuts and optional readings.
Though the universities autonomy should aim at
switching over to complete internal evaluation of
students over a period of time, there could be a mix of
internal and external evaluation during the transition
period, depending on the circumstances prevailing in
each university
 In the context of academic nurturing of their
autonomous character, higher education institutions
should by design focus on holistic development of an
individual involving development of multiple areas of
intelligence rather than merely linguistic and logical
intelligence.
Besides, autonomous institutions should encourage
students participation in various extracurricular
activities so that the focus remains on building nation
of healthy individuals both in mind and body.
Funding agencies should support such initiatives of
higher education institutions.
 Each higher education institution should set up
an Internal Quality Assurance Cell with a view to
continuously assessing its performance on
objective and predefined parameters.
This exercise should primarily aim at conducting
academic audit and to encourage institutions to
make continuous improvements to raise their
standards.
Institutions should make their output
performance public to ensure transparency and
accountability.
 Though the assessment of higher education
institutions through external accrediting
agencies should continue to be voluntary, they
should be encouraged by the apex bodies
referred to in an earlier recommendation to
subject themselves for external accreditation
periodically through advocacy and system of
incentives and recognition.
 Nurturing autonomy with
accountability
In the spirit of, all higher education institutions should adopt the practice
of performance appraisal of teachers initiated through self appraisal based
on objective parameters.
Good teaching is informed by good research. Therefore, there should be
adequate weightage for research work based on quantifiable parameters
in performance appraisal of the faculty.
Innovation in teaching such as use of new technologies in creating
conducive learning environment should also be factored in.
Outcome of performance appraisal should be used by the system for the
purpose of merit-based promotions and other incentives and awards.
Once the institutions adopt objective and transparent procedure for
promotions, the current practice of sending observers on behalf of the
statutory bodies in the selection committees would be obviated.
A system of recognizing good teachers in terms of their academic
contribution be introduced at the university, state and national level.
 Orientation Programmes and
Refresher Courses
There is a strong need for improving the quality
of Orientation Programmes and Refresher
Courses so that these result in actual
development of expected competence and
professionalism of the faculty and not taken as a
routine intervention with the mere objective of
facilitating promotion and career growth
There should be compulsory and objective
evaluation of both the resource persons and the
participants at the end of each programme.
Professional development of teachers.
Participation in national and international
seminars and workshops is important for
professional
Such participation should be adequately
supported by the higher education institutions
and the funding agencies.
In addition, individual institutions should also
apportion a part of their internal resources to
fund and encourage such participation.
 Research outcome
With a view to improving the quality of
research in the country, use of international
bench marks such as citation indices, patents,
should be encouraged and a national
repository of doctoral theses created.
 What means to us
1. Social Network, Internet
2. Communication Lab,
3. Give them space, freedom, friendly campus
4. Group activity, Projects
5. Assessment- then & there
6. Tolerant, Accept as they are
7. Creative, Innovative
8. Text book contents known, whats new & extra
9. Flipped Class Room-the need
10. Tech savvy & Digital
 TEQIP PROGRAMME
Indian Institute of Management
Udaipur
September 7 12, 2015

TRAINING ON MANAGEMENT CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT

PROGRAMME (MCEP) FOR TEQIP INSTITUTIONS

Part 1: On Academic Programme

Speaker:
Prof. N. N. Kishore
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
 Prologue:
The economic reforms of the early 1990s have
transformed India into an economic power,
firmly perched among the upper echelons of
the global elite. As a result, the aspirations of
the society as well as the demands on industry
have witnessed a drastic change.
ACADEMIC REVIEW

The IIT Kanpur undertakes academic review every 10 years.

The present Academic Review Committee (ARC) like to
address:
i. need to be globally competitive,
ii. rapidly evolving technological needs, and
iii. rising expectations of students and their parents.

Designing a relevant curriculum requires an understanding

of the evolving needs of all stakeholders, namely students,
teachers, industry, and R&D/academic establishments.
 Teaching:
IITK has a reputation of having a highly dedicated and knowledgeable
faculty. It has been a pioneer in science and technology education
in India and continues to be so.
However, the following issues about our undergraduate education
merit consideration:
Unrealistic expectations
Need a proper understanding of maturity level of incoming UGs
Teaching style
Packed content
Frenetic pace of instruction
Need to evolve a teaching style to capture students attention
Overemphasis on analysis
Very little synthesis
Connection to real engineering problems minimal
Scope for tapping students creative potential is limited
Industry
In this era of globalization, the preeminence and high
growth rates of the Indian industry would depend
on its ability to come up with significant value
addition and cutting edge technologies, for which
the academic curriculum must engender:
Analysis and synthesis
Innovation
Interplay between science and engineering
Interdisciplinary flavour
Management skills
Communication skills
Cultural and social awareness
 R&D Institutions
Inhouse development of cutting edge technologies requires
people with:
Vision
The ability to adapt technology to changing environment
Clean/green technology
Resource conservation/recycling
Harnessing nonconventional energy resources
The ability to address the law of diminishing returns in technology
development require:
Continuous upgradation of skill sets
Sound fundamentals
What is an Ideal Academic Programme?
Skills required to produce the ideal or a model student:
Basic skills
Mathematical and computational skills
Analytical skills
Experimental skills
Hardware friendly
Scientific temper
Communication skills
Cultural and social awareness
Advanced skills
Departmentoriented skills
Interdisciplinary orientation
Synthesis
Auxiliary skills
Management
Entrepreneurship
Current Curriculum
Strengths
Sciencebased education
Emphasis on fundamentals
Rigorous analysis
Humanities and social sciences as compulsory requirement
Weaknesses
Less emphasis on working with hands and tinkering
Too much content
Imbalance between breadth and depth
Content above the maturity level of a reasonably good student.
Lack of flexibility for students to select courses depending on their maturity,
aptitude and interest.
Minimal connection between course content and reallife applications.
Not enough opportunities to explore for very good students.
Little scope for multidisciplinary specialization.
No emphasis on good written or oral communications skills in evaluation
criteria.
 PLACEMENT OPTIONS
before grauates
1. Software/ IT Companies
2. Core Companies
3. UPSC / IAS / IES
4. Banks / Defence / Insurance
5. State Govt.
6. Teaching
7. Higher Studies thro GATE, CAT, GMAT, GRE
8. Research
9. Entrepreneur
10. NGO / Public Service

The Curriculum we design should be helpful for all the options

 Challenges
Impart Fundamental knowledge, analytical skills,
creativity, perspective, and ethics.
Seek to advance technology and science by combining
basic knowledge with the innovative application of
engineering and scientific principles.
UG programme provides a broad base on which
successful careers in engineering and a number of other
fields can be founded, whereas the PG programme aims
to prepare specialists, professionals, and scholars in the
respective areas of engineering
20th Century Scenario

21st Century Scenario

 LETWe
US need to Equip
UNDERSTAND Ourselves
THE NEED AND
EQUIPwell and TO
OURSELF progress fast.
PROGRESS FAST

There is an urgent need for fire in the belly

 There isthno point in blaming
22220
THERE Century
IS NO POINT Scenario
IN BLAMMING-

LET US UNDERSSTAND OUR

Students & other Stake
Holders
Let us understand our roleOUR
andROLL
do AND
it well
DO IT WELL
BEST OF LUCK
THANK YOU