In the days to come, a university may not be able to grant affiliation to more than 200 colleges as the Human Resource Development Ministry looks to improve academic and administrative excellence.
At present, while the national average for affiliations is 300 colleges per university, the likes of Osmania and Pune Universities have more than 800 affiliate colleges. While capping affiliations, States will be asked to create more universities instead. A senior HRD Ministry official said the Higher Education Department has proposed to put a ceiling on colleges to be affiliated to any university at 200.
For Central funding, States will now have to develop a comprehensive higher education plan that utilises an interconnected strategy to address issues of expansion, equity and excellence together. The plan needs to include projected analytical growth - number of degrees to be awarded in the next decade, staff recruitment and research enhancement, among others.
“The proposal has been submitted as several State universities have been found to have a large number of affiliate colleges,” said the official. The Ministry will stress on setting up of more universities so a large number of colleges are not tied academically to one university. The Ministry will unveil an ambitious Rs 1 lakh crore Central funding scheme to link academic, administrative and financial reforms of higher education within States and UTs as part of the Centre’s Rashtriya Uchattar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA).
RUSA is a flagship scheme aimed at providing strategic funding to States’ higher and technical institutions. When implemented, it will lead to setting up and upgrade of colleges and universities, facilitating higher education for more students. Other institutions like IITs and NITs are also granted permission to autonomously award degrees.
Tamil Nadu has the maximum number of 55 public universities and 29 deemed universities. Andhra Pradesh has the most State universities (32) and Rajasthan, the maximum number of private ones, at 25.
Delhi and Uttar Pradesh have four Central universities each, the most among all States and Union Territories. While the oldest established university is that of Mumbai (1857), the first institute to be granted deemed university status was the Indian Institute of Science (IIS) in May 1958.