Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Top colleges to award own degrees?

NEW DELHI: Top colleges in the country like St Stephen's in Delhi and St Xavier's in Kolkata may be allowed to give their own degrees if the recommendation of a committee set up by the HRD ministry is accepted.

The ministry has in fact set up a panel to create a roadmap for implementing the recommendations of the Madhav Menon committee about autonomy in higher education — which suggested that top colleges be allowed to give degrees — and reports by committee of vice-chancellors on issues like centralized admission test.

On the issue of colleges awarding degrees, sources said: "It all depends on what the HRD committee thinks." The panel consists of the special secretary, two additional secretaries, the joint secretary, higher eduction, chairpersons of the UGC and AICTE, and two members to be co-opted from the Menon and VCs' committee.

Earlier this month, the Menon panel had said there was a need for paradigm shift in the way higher education is conducted in the country. It said the office of the visitor for central universities be done away with. The powers of visitor — in most cases it is the President — should be vested with the chancellor of the central varsity. The committee also said that universities should review their functioning at the end of each decade. Already, the proposed National Commission for Higher Education and Research provides for review every 10 years.

The committee had also said that IIMs be turned into universities. It said on the lines of the IIT Council, a similar council of vice-chancellors of central universities should be constituted. It also said that the practice of appointing bureaucrats to university positions should be discouraged.

The committee of VCs of Central universities had recommended a common entrance test for admission in postgraduate courses and M Phil/PhD across the 42 such varsities. Another panel on Navratna Universities has recommended direct funding from the Centre, freedom to fix faculty salary and student fee, withholding increment to non-performers, etc

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