MUMBAI: Autonomous colleges in the same area will soon allow students to choose from a basket of courses and allow credit transfer between them. For example, a student at Jai Hind College can choose a course from St. Xavier’s and earn credits and vice versa.
In a workshop involving nearly 150 autonomous state colleges, Secretary of Higher and Technical Education Chandrakant Patil even discussed the idea of vertical growth in case leading colleges want to expand and don’t have enough space to implement national education policies ( NEP).
The state also plans to launch a portal called MahaSwayam that will offer massive open online courses (MOOCs) modeled after Swayam. Autonomous colleges can share their content online with other colleges and also upload specialized courses and potentially generate revenue, the minister suggested, said a principal who attended the workshop at SNDT Women’s University.
It was organized jointly by the college and university.
“Colleges can grow vertically, can plan more FSI”
Autonomous colleges will soon allow students to choose courses from other nearby colleges.
A school principal said offering the four-year degree in the current infrastructure is a problem in cities like Mumbai and Pune. In addition, Chandrakant Patil, minister for higher and technical education, recommended that colleges be allowed to grow vertically if necessary, and the department may table a proposal to increase the FSI (Floor Space Index) for colleges in Cabinet, a director said.
A department official said a blueprint for vertical universities in Mumbai and Pune is in the pipeline. He said vertical growth should only be allowed to colleges that meet the criteria to become a degree-granting university as recommended by UGC.
In a statement, Patil said every college should succeed in raising funds from alumni and through corporate social responsibility (CSR). He called on autonomous universities to prepare five other universities in their vicinity to implement the education policy and to act as their mentors. He emphasized that colleges should obtain NAAC accreditation and those that already have it should help others earn it.
A department official said the focus is on providing quality education through regular academic audits, NAAC accreditation, and active participation in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). Only a few city colleges currently participate in the national ranking process.
While all colleges are expected to implement the policy, nearly 150 autonomous colleges in the state could lead by example, the official said. Nine colleges including Ruia, Birla and CKT Colleges in Mumbai were selected from different regions to share their NDP implementation plan with other autonomous colleges in the workshop.
The government has also formed a steering committee to ensure a smooth transition from autonomous institutions to empowered colleges, allowing them to offer higher education degrees jointly with the parent universities. In the long term, these institutes can then be converted into independent graduate universities and separated from the mother universities. The committee will sensitize students to the concept of separation from the mother universities; for example losing the tag of the University of Mumbai.
Universities that enjoy long autonomy are able to implement many NEP recommendations, particularly the four-year undergraduate course, the one-year postgraduate course and direct entry into the doctorate for those who choose to do a fourth-year UG research internship, Pillai said .
“Student enrollment with the Academic Bank of Credits will also facilitate credit transfers. The fact that 40% credits can be acquired from industry and other guest-involved institutions can also be effectively implemented. This could be the first step towards empowered degree-awarding colleges,” VN Rajasekharan Pillai, vice-chancellor of Somaiya Vidyavihar University and chair of the steering committee for NEP implementation in autonomous colleges, told TOI.
