SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Feb 14: With the autonomy of St Xavier’s College, Marwari College and Ranchi Women’s College ending, officials have claimed that the UGC will not give autonomy to these colleges till they improve their NAAC grading.
Talking in this regard, Deputy Director of the Jharkhand Department of Higher and Technical Education Vibha Pandey said that it is on the Ranchi University administration to work to save the autonomy of said colleges.
“The autonomy of said colleges will continue till the implementation of the New Education Policy. Once NEP is implemented, they will lose their power to set syllabi and take examinations. Along with this, if the colleges want their autonomy to continue, they will have to improve their NAAC grading. This is also because autonomy is provided to colleges that have an A grade,” she added.
Meanwhile, sources at Ranchi University, on the condition of anonymity have claimed that the decision in this regard will be taken within a couple of days. However, no notification has been issued by the university in this regard till now.
Notably, academic autonomy is available to colleges for 5 years, after which a request is made to renew it through a letter to the UGC via the university. After this, a UGC team visits the college and provides it with academic autonomy after inspection. Colleges graded A by NAAC have their autonomy automatically renewed. However, none of the universities or colleges in the state has been graded A by NAAC.
An autonomous college has several rights including conducting exams, issuing admit cards for the same, introducing new courses in consultation with the UGC and the governing body of the university, issuing results and not needing to be involved in sessions of the university.
Principal of Marwari College Dr Manoj Kumar in this regard said that a letter has been written to UGC on behalf of Marwari College in 2021, but the UGC team is yet to visit the college. On the other hand, the RU management has been informed of the end of the autonomy of the college.