AUTONOMY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

© Associated Asia Research Foundation (AARF)
A Monthly Double-Blind Peer Reviewed Refereed Open Access International e-Journal - Included in the International Serial Directories.
Page | 1
GE-International Journal of Management Research
ISSN (O): (2321-1709), ISSN (P): (2394-4226)
Impact Factor- 5.779, Volume 6, Issue 10, October 2018
Website- www.aarf.asia, Email : editor@aarf.asia , editoraarf@gmail.com
AUTONOMY IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Dr. Anita Sharma & Prof. (Dr.) Harish Singh
Maharaja Surajmal Institute, C-4, Janakpuri, New Delhi
ABSTRACT
Indian higher education system is very complex with very less amount of autonomy. The
institutional autonomy basically means giving Institution a large degree of freedom to steer itself
to achieve its goals and objectives. The autonomy is expected to provide a better framework
through a decentralized management culture. Creating successful universities needs a supportive
governance structure in which they have autonomy to achieve objectives, whether research or
teaching, with appropriate level of accountability. This paper discusses about the meaning of
institutional autonomy, its different types, relation between autonomy and quality, key issues of
autonomy, meaning of autonomy and current level of autonomy in Indian Universities.
Keywords: Institutional autonomy, Higher education institutions, autonomy and accountability
Introduction
The institutional autonomy basically means giving Institution a large degree of freedom to steer
itself to achieve its goals and objectives. The autonomy is expected to provide a better
framework through a decentralized management culture. Creating successful universities needs a
supportive governance structure in which they have autonomy to achieve objectives, whether
research or teaching, with appropriate level of accountability.

Page | 2
Different Types of Institutional Autonomy
Substantive autonomy Procedural autonomy
 Curriculum design
 Research policy
 Entrance standards
 Academic staff appointments
 Awarding degree
 Budgeting
 Financing management
 Non-academic staff appointments
 Purchasing
 Entering into contracts
Literature Review
P. Aghion (2009) has looked at the relationship between autonomy and outcomes amongst the
top World Universities as ranked by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) Rankings of
Universities. The outcome variable of Aghion is research (as reflected by rankings under the
SJTU ranking) and innovation (as reflected in the number of patents registered) .They find that
the autonomy factor is maximized for those European universities that share a number of
characteristics including that they
(i) do not need to seek government approval of their budget
(ii) select their baccalaureate students in a manner independent of the government
(iii) pay faculty flexibly rather than based on a centralized seniority /rank based scale
(iv) control their hiring internally,
(v) have low endogamy
(vi) own their own buildings
(vii) set their own curriculum

Page | 3
(viii) have a relatively low percentage of their budget from core government funds, and
(ix) have a relatively high percentage of their funds from competitive research grants
UNESCO study in 2014, covering five countries in Asia, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan and
Vietnam, focused on institutional autonomy and the role it plays in governance and management
of HEIs in enhancing the overall effectiveness of higher education systems Higher education
institutions (HEIs) were progressively given authority to take decisions in academics and
administration and financial aspects (mobilization of financial resources and their deployment)At
the national level, in most of these countries, quality and educational outcomes are linked with
industry and society need. They were also integrated with policy-making, regulating, facilitating
and negotiating. Quality assurance agencies have thus become a key instrument for
implementing Monitoring and Evaluation
In all these five countries, increased autonomy was accompanied by the introduction of new
accountability measures. It was observed that the translation of autonomy from Concept to
Governance, in operational practice, depends on institutional leaders. Institutions with strong
leaders benefited more from autonomy than those with less effective leaders. In all cases, the
governance reforms have further strengthened the role of the institutional head. It was also
observed that delays in decision-making have been reduced, as a result of greater autonomy
Autonomy & Quality
Enhanced autonomy is intended mainly to decentralize decision making and create an enabling
environment to improve the teaching – learning – evaluation processes. Studies of Higher
education institutions (HEIs) around the world suggest that countries have been modifying their
system-wide governance structures to devolve management and supervision of their universities
to achieve the goals of autonomy, with accompanying levels of accountability. Increasingly,
there is shift from being “state controlled” to “state supervised” systems across the world. The
consensus among the higher education specialists that autonomy can ensure development of
institutions that can be responsive and flexible, in line with the changing demands of the industry
and society. Developing one set of rules of governance, without examining the contextual
factors, may not be able to deliver the right balance of autonomy and accountability.

Page | 4
Governments have to evolve alternate mechanisms of accountability, which are outcome based.
These mechanisms may include encouraging HEIs to prepare strategic plans and monitor the
outcomes and signing performance contracts, whereby incentives are provided to high
performing institutions. A committee, constituted by Central Advisory Board of Education
(CABE) in 2005 studied Autonomy of HEIs, covering academic, administrative and financial
aspects
Recommendations
The recommendations given includes the measures to enhance the autonomy of HEIs having
potential for excellence and to institutionalize regulatory provisions for promoting autonomy and
accountability of the institutions, to link the degree of autonomy with the level of accreditation
(by NAAC), which was considered to be indicative of the potential for excellence. Set up a
National Testing Service (NTS), along the lines of ETS in USA, to evaluate the educational
standards across the country. Some recommendations related to academic autonomy are being
implemented by UGC, critical ones in financial and administrative aspects, with regard to
approval number of posts (for teachers) and their recruitment in government funded universities
are not yet implemented. This resulted in acute shortage of teachers, which has impacted the
quality of education in most of the government funded universities
Issues Affecting Autonomy
Major issues fall under two categories – restrictions and limitations as per the regulations
(University Acts and Regulatory/Guidelines from UGC) and operational decision making. They
affect both government funded and private universities, though in different ways and to different
degrees. In government funded universities, major issues include government’s influence on vital
aspects like appointment of Vice Chancellor .Functioning of the governing bodies like Senate,
Syndicate, Academic Council etc. and Government control on opening of new colleges or grant
of affiliation to new colleges. Wide powers are vested in the Chancellor, which position is
vested with Governor in State Universities, who find it unwieldy to exercise, due to
preoccupation with other responsibilities. In the case of private universities, most of the issues
are with regard to setting up the university, scope for expansion (geographical as well as mode of

Page | 5
academic delivery) and sources of funding. As per the current UGC guidelines, a private
university can be set up only through a State Private University Act and has to be unitary in
nature, thereby limiting the scope for expansion. A study of the Private Universities Acts of
various states reveals the difference in governing mechanisms as well as operational guidelines,
including admission of students. Besides, restriction on jurisdiction of the state, there are
regulatory restrictions with regard to mode of delivery, like distance education. Restrictions on
type of sponsoring institutions constraints the sources of funding.Need for compliance to
guidelines of multiple regulatory bodies (Central and State government) affects governance.
What is Accountability?
The notion of accountability is difficult to define in precise terms. However, broadly speaking,
accountability exists when Institutions and their functionaries are subject to information or
justification for their actions .Therefore, the concept of accountability involves two distinct
stages: answerability and enforcement.
Current Levels of Accountability
Currently, neither public nor private HEIs in India are required to develop strategy plans,
although a few individual institutions do so voluntarily. All public and private HEIs are regularly
expected to update performance, though most of them do not comply. Most allocations to public
HEIs are for recurrent expenditure, which constitute about 90% of the funds. These funds are
subject to external auditing on a line item basis. There are currently no mechanisms to allocate
money on the basis of performance, for either public or private institutions. Hence, over a period
of time, there is a tendency not to focus on predefined outcomes, unless driven by market forces.
On 20th
March, 2018 UGC has approved the full autonomy for 62 higher educational institutions
of India. Five central universities, 21 state universities and 26 private universities have been
given this status. Eight colleges have also been given autonomous status under the autonomous
colleges’ regulation. These quality institutions will get complete autonomy by which they can
start

Page | 6
 new courses
 new departments
 new programmes
 off campuses
 skill courses
 research parks
 appoint foreign faculty
 take foreign students
 offer variable incentive packages
 Introduce online distance learning
 institutes are also going to get into the academic collaboration with the world’s top five
hundred universities
 admission procedure
 fees structure and
 curriculum
Central Universities with Autonomous Status
 The central universities include
 Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)
 Aligarh Muslim University(AMU)
 Banaras Hindu University (BHU)
 University of Hyderabad and English and Foreign Languages University, Telangana.

Page | 7
Autonomous status to State Universities
The state varsities include
Jadhavpur University
Andhra University
Algappa University
National University of Law
Utkal University
Kurukshetra University
Osmania University
Guru Nanak Dev University
University of Jammu,
University of Mysore
Anna University
Punjab University and
University of Madras among others.
Conclusion
Previous researches show that the greater amount of autonomy to the universities provides
fruitful results in term of their performance. The notion of accountability is difficult to define in
precise terms. However, broadly speaking, accountability exists when Institutions and their
functionaries are subject to information or justification for their actions. On 20th
March, 2018
UGC has approved the full autonomy for 62 higher educational institutions of India. Five central
universities, 21 state universities and 26 private universities have been given this status. Eight

Page | 8
colleges have also been given autonomous status under the autonomous colleges’ regulation.
This is a positive step taken for the development of Higher education institutions.
References
1. cscs.res.in › Research Programmes › HEIRA
2. https://icehm.org/upload/2797ED0115098.pdf
3. https://www.researchgate.net/.../282293148_Higher_Education_in_India_-_Issues_
Challenges and Suggestions
4. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1131773.pdf
5. shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/66829/10/10_chapter%203.pdf
6. www.allsubjectjournal.com/download/2877/4-2-59-903.pdf

AUTONOMY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to AUTONOMY IN HIGHER EDUCATION (20)

More from Stephen Faucher (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

AUTONOMY IN HIGHER EDUCATION