Universities discuss autonomy proposal

Around 40 directors and vice-chancellors (VCs) of several institutes and universities met with members of the Yash Pal Committee in Bangalore today to give their comments on the draft report on Higher Education Commission (HEC) — prepared by the Yashpal committee — which has called for doing away with regulatory bodies like the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

“We had been hearing about people being concerned on how the report will be implemented if approved by the government and we had, therefore, held a meeting to clarify certain things. For instance, the suggestion of expanding the scope of IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) and IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) is voluntary and not compulsory so as to snatch their autonomy,” said Yash Pal, chairman of the Yashpal Committee, adding that after including the suggestions and comments arising out of the meeting, a final draft will be presented to the government on April 17, the last day of the committee’s term.

The members shared their consent on recommendations like giving autonomy to institutes and universities so that they can chalk out their own course of actions, setting up of HEC that will be a non-political, non-bureaucratic body, expansion of IIMs and IITs into universities, among other things, according to Pankaj Chandra, member of the Yashpal committee and Director of IIM-Bangalore.

Out of several of its recommendations, the suggestion of expanding IIMs and IITs into full-fledged universities by introducing disciplines other than management, evoked a lot of interest. “It is a very globally acceptable idea and world over management institutes have already seen themselves as part of universities without losing their autonomy. Some of the IIMs and IITs have already begun working towards this by introducing courses in other disciplines,” said Chandra.

For instance, IIM-B is set to introduce a post graduate programme for executives of 10-12 years of experience where 30 per cent of the curriculum is non-management.

“This is a step towards expanding our scope by introducing non-management curriculum for the programme. The curriculum will include disciplines like humanities, aesthetics, creativity, history, literature and social sciences. We are also getting people to teach and give seminars on disciplines other than management,” added Chandra.

Similarly, IIT-Kharagpur has also introduced a course in law through the Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, which is deemed to be a step towards expanding its scope.

However, not all IIMs support the idea. “Thankfully, even if approved by the government, the move is voluntary. But if implemented, it may spell disaster since the institute may lose its core focus on management. Also, it is already quite tough to find faculty for management. Hence, the new disciplines will be additional burden on the academics,” said a source at IIM-Ahmedabad.