The concern for autonomy of universities came to the foreground recently through an event that unfolded in Delhi University with reference to duration of graduation courses.
Opinion was divided among the rank and file about the efficacy of FYUP or more precisely the way in which it was introduced, especially its timing etc. The course was hastily scrapped by UGC following the heels of some touted commotions, brawls and volatile dramatics on campus. But it was felt by many that the decision should have been of the university alone and not imposed upon it under duress.
Ingemund Hägg, a Swedish scholar observed in his well-researched paper, “I argue that academic freedom is a necessary condition for a liberal society. University autonomy is no guarantee for academic freedom but is necessary... it means that universities must be free from pressure from external interests of different kinds, be it economic, political, social or cultural.” It is definitely the case that we have not reached that stage where such pressures on universities can be discounted irrespective of the political hue of the establishment.
We need to admit that like in other sectors, this development too, is reflective of imperfections in our democratic institutionalism. Our institutions are newer and weaker. They have not been exposed to the vicissitudes of movements and forces of the type that helped build many leading European universities in the past. Neither were they founded like other comparatively younger universities of Europe, America or Asia, flushed with funds and based on hugely superior technological, infrastructural, and academic standards. An institution with dependent or weak financial status can hardly be expected to show signs of independence. Economic subservience brings moral and academic subservience.
The German sociologist Dr Rudolf Stichweh has suggested many elements of autonomy, “the institutional autonomy should include the right and competence to make independent decisions on the limits of institutional commitment, the right to independently decide on intuitional principles and forms of internal governance, the right to define strategic tasks and to set institutional aims, and the duty to assume full responsibility for decisions taken and the possible external effects of these decisions, in short, to be accountable”. It flows then that there cannot be a free institution, just as there cannot be a free person without total control over itself.
Typically financial freedom brings freedom of action that alone can guarantee excellence in the long run. lack of economic freedom stifles the growth of identity and free spirit of an institution and kills initiative. They are not able to perform beyond mediocrity. This vicious chain in which our universities find themselves today needs to be broken before expecting any good coming from them. Autonomy will be a mirage without economic freedom. Endowments and chairs, unlike well-known international universities, are not created for our universities that could support and sustain higher education and research.
The commitment of the education elite to develop institutions through meticulous non-bureaucratic concerns and intellectual support of the academic community is missing. This needs supra consciousness, magnanimity, vision, pledge, consensus and visualisation of a high order and freedom from petty-mindedness and tunnel vision.
Thorsten Nybom in a research paper of Örebro University, Sweden, University autonomy: a matter of political rhetoricIJ had this to say, “It is perhaps unnecessary to point out that far from the somewhat idealised and free-floating vision of institutional autonomy cherished by some academics, the university has always been linked to various systems of societal accountability; ecclesiastical, legal and civic, and this unavoidable connection between ‘town and gown’ will also be the crucial determinant for the future formation and scope of institutional autonomy”. Going beyond the political rhetoric is what is not easy. There cannot be a substitute for real hard measures that are based on innovative thinking to propagate autonomy and assurance of unstinted support for goals that are once determined.
What is the theoretical framework that can be relied upon to correct the situationIJ Apart from the best international practices, we have the best brains in this country; their advisory and reports shall help in laying down the way forward, and there are many of these in the administrative archives. But we have this deplorable convention of keeping all such working papers under wraps or allow them to gather dust or rust, depending on what material they are wrapped in. Most education reforms have not happened because nobody reads those highly labour-intensive reports, let alone working on or around it. This apathy has caused us dear and made our institutions weak and vulnerable. Institutions are built over a long period. But the beginning has to be right.
faizihashmi@gmail.com