The Ministry of Human Resource & Development’s recent announcement on its active attempts to grant autonomy to the top three colleges of Delhi University has stirred up a hornets’ nest in the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA), which expressed its objections in a statement on Tuesday.
DUTA stated that it amounted to a nefarious bid to dismember the university from the prestigious St Stephen’s College, lady Shri Ram and Shri Ram College of Commerce being famed throughout the country.
“Such autonomy is a way of giving disproportionate powers to governing bodies and managing committees of these colleges, which will work against interests of independent academic and intellectual pursuits,” said Amar Deo Sharma, president of DUTA.
“No attempt has been made to even enquire whether teachers and students of these colleges would want such autonomy. Instead of giving academic independence to students and teachers, managing committees of these colleges would be interested in further commercialising the education they seek to impart,” he added.
The association has said they will fight if the colleges are granted autonomy in anyway.
“Having the unfettered freedom to raise their own revenue through fees, such colleges will make themselves inaccessible to the common people. DUTA urges the Ministry to review recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission regarding autonomy of colleges, as these violate the very principles on which public-funded higher education has been founded. It appeals to the Ministry to withdraw its announcement immediately,” Sharma added.