Autonomy, considered an essential prerequisite for universities to flourish, would be the focus of deliberations at a three-day annual meet of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) beginning at the SOA University here on Saturday.
“Without any doubt, autonomy is an essential prerequisite for universities to innovate, thrive and excel, but the ground reality is neither the Indian universities are endowed with parameters which are globally acknowledged and recognized for excellence, nor do they have the required autonomy to take steps towards that goal,” AIU president Prof Sandeep Sancheti told reporters on Friday.
“This paradoxical situation,” he said, “called for a thorough debate on the subject so that we can identify and define the kind and degree of autonomy the universities or other higher education institutions need to achieve the goals of quality and excellence.”
The conference, to be attended by around 200 Vice-Chancellors of different universities across the country and leaders in the field of higher education, would have a plenary session on the topic ‘Autonomy for Excellence in Higher Education’, Prof Sancheti said.
He said the Ministry of HRD has been mandated with the goal of building world-class higher education institutions in India. “In this context, the government reaffirms its role as a facilitator notwithstanding the fact that so far we could not gather consensus on the kind of facilitation which universities require to excel. If we start analysing from simple to complex requirements, the need for autonomy prevails everywhere,” he said.