High-performing universities may get more autonomy

The human resource development ministry is introducing a carrot and stick approach under which the performing universities will get greater autonomy and poor performers will get their funding cut, writes Prashant K Nanda for Livemint.

To implement the initiative, the ministry will divide the universities into three categories based on their performance on several parameters including the teaching-learning environment, research and industry income. “We are looking to classify universities into three categories and this is not based on NAAC [National Assessment and Accreditation Council] grades,” Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said.

India currently has 759 universities including 47 central universities, 350 state-run universities, 239 private universities and 123 deemed-to-be universities. At least 37,000 colleges are affiliated to these institutions and it is believed that the performance of a university impacts the education outcome of a majority of the affiliated colleges. Most of these universities are far from being well run and none of them make it to the top 200 universities list in global rankings.
Full report on the Livemint site