UGC's New Guidelines might Slow Autonomy Status for St. Stephen's College

St. Stephen's College, New Delhi is only a few steps away from becoming an Autonomous institution. The college which is known for its rough and tough cut off marks, have been at it to get the status. But currently the situation looks like, there is one more stone that the college needs to push off their track.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has put up new guidelines on the autonomous colleges and thus St. Stephen's would have to start a fresh application because of the revised forms.

The college had applied for the autonomous status on March 25, 2017. The students and the faculty members put forth the fact that they weren't informed about the application for the status change and thus had objected to it. The college focused getting the application through but now with the UGC's revised format the St. Stephen's College would require to start from the bottom.

The HRD Ministry and the UGC will be coming together for a meeting with the principals of various colleges in the country to put an end to all misapprehensions about the topic of autonomy. Information about the scheme will be provided by the officials and misconceptions about money related issues will be clarified.

A senior UGC official said "A number of colleges fear that autonomy will come with a cut in finances, which is clearly not the case. We want good institutes to opt for autonomy. Colleges with academic and operative freedom do better than others, and possess more credibility."

The UGC Guidelines for the Autonomous Colleges 2017 mentions that a college which comes under the scheme will be given the opportunity to decide its own courses and will be able to restructure the syllabus to adhere to local needs, The guidelines will also help in making it focus on skills , along with a stress on requirements for job.

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