Autonomy in Higher Education

Dr. D. Mukhopadhyay
In order to achieve the desired economic growth , human resource development has to play a significant role in the context of  competitive  global scenario. Indian higher education system has come a long way  after independence  and the same has been contributing  in the overall socio-economic development of almost every sector  of the economy. The higher educational institutions which predominantly include Universities need to contribute further in the areas of information technology, engineering,  bio-technology, law, accountancy, commerce, management, entrepreneurship and skill development  and innovation etc.  In order to achieve  significant degree of excellence in higher education delivery  system and  accomplish satisfactory degree of performance, question of autonomy in higher education occupies an important room in the  socio-economic environment of the country.  Performance of higher educational institutions is by and large keenly and sympathetically  connected  with autonomy  which  would enable the educational institutions  to develop the relevant infrastructure and logistics mechanisms that  are suitable  and responsive to the contemporary need of the society.  Though  there have been  noteworthy  debates, deliberations and discussions on the issues concerning autonomy of the higher educational institutions at various forums during last  one decade but so far nothing in real terms  has been concretized in the question of autonomy  in higher education.  So far ever,  everything is  in pen and papers.
The Prime Minister of India during his address at the 102nd Indian Science Congress in January 2015 advocated  for giving more autonomy and academic liberty to the higher educational institutions including the Universities and  the purpose of such nation-wide call  was to  ensure  the role  of the higher education in spearheading the  socio-economic transformational development  of the country at large.  The same version of thought has been echoed  by the  academicians and  leaders  from various  nooks and corners  of the society  for quite a  long period of time. They are  advocating  for grant of  more autonomy , flexibility and academic freedom to  Universities and higher educational institutions in making India  a  knowledge driven economy and knowledge based society.   Autonomy is necessary  in framing  a decentralized management structure and  full freedom to raise  financial resources to the tune of  absolute requirements for  bringing  about overall  academic development that is able to  meet the need of contemporary   standard of the  academic pursuit.  India without any doubt is required to be  raised to the status of  knowledge and skill based society and for this purpose necessary  flexibility in decision making is the need of the hour.  The Universities and  higher educational institutions  need  decentralized decision making  set ups which should enable to frame strategic, tactical and operational management  decisions in befitting manner keeping in view the  specific requirements of a particular educational institution.
The  requirements and need  of 800 Universities is not the same and that varies from University to University depending  on the nature of environment under which it operates. The fundamental spirit of  academic autonomy  is    to  offer excellence in academic governance and the  management of financial resources.  The academic autonomy  aims at bestowing  decision making authorities in the spheres of curriculum development, designing  appropriate pedagogy and evaluation criteria. Administrative autonomy   enables the Universities  to select the  staff to enrich Human Resource Department.  And finally financial autonomy   gives flexibility   to  make optimum utilization of financial resources  keeping pace with  requirements of priorities in order to accomplish the  vision, mission, objectives and goals of the Universities. Mission refers to purpose for which the institutions exist and vision  is nothing but forward looking. The Universities are required to predict and forecast the  strategic position of the institutions  under the  changed circumstances   down the line say in next five to ten years, ten to twenty years, twenty to thirty years and so on.  They are  to take into consideration the  different approaches  to achieve academic excellence in terms of  competition and rivalry  that can take place  in near future.  They should not only keep domestic rivalry but also international competitive environment that  is likely  to emerge   in the forthcoming future. Perhaps  the Universities shall be able to  manage  their resources keeping in view  demand conditions,  strategy, structure, rivalry and as to how  to gain competitive advantage over the others if  autonomy is given to the higher educational institutions including the Universities.  The Universities can frame the standard operating norms  for admitting the students both domestic and international and they shall be able to  attract international students when they maintain academic standards    keeping pace along with competitive  academic environment if   complete  academic, administrative and financial management autonomy are given  by the government to the Universities and higher educational institutions.
The higher educational institutions shall be able to  analyze as to what  are the competitors  current goals and how the goals are likely to change under changed situations. Moreover, how other institutions  are competing vis-a-vis  the concerned intuition’s strategic position. with reference to its performance.  A complete analysis  with respect of  key strengths and weaknesses of the competitors against which the requirements of resources  can be  predicted provided the  institutions  have the flexibility and autonomy in the sphere of decision making domain. Moreover, it is imperative to predict  what strategy  changes are likely to be initiated by the competitors  and how  the competitors  would respond  to the strategic initiatives of the concerned institutes and it is possible to   have such prediction only when the  a particular institution enjoys  autonomy in  its day  to day operations.  The educational institutions  are required to   enjoy complete autonomy in designing their academic products, price for the products so designed, product promotional  strategies and placing the same in the academic environment under the influence of     contemporary political and economic  conditions.  An academic product passes through a life cycle and the same need to be reviewed periodically in order to  ensure its contemporary relevance and usefulness of the academic products.
It is worth mentioning that  debate  and discussion on the questions  and issues  concerning autonomy have been   going on   for over  several decades  but so far nothing  conclusive  has emerged as has been mentioned elsewhere in this paper.  Various committees and commissions     for examining the issues  relating to granting autonomy are constituted by the Government from time  to time and those committees and commissions  have been  continuously offering  worthy recommendations for the same but in reality  the respective regulatory bodies    do hardly response to such recommendations. Though there has been certain marginal   positive development  that  has taken place  but  the same is very insignificant in terms of  volume.  Overall scenario has  hardly changed  as compared to the global scenario. Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Stanford and MIT are the seats of academic excellence  and for this one of the significant reasons is that  they enjoy complete autonomy   with regard to  academic , administrative and financial matters.  If complete  autonomy is granted to higher academic institutions, it will  help the Indian academic institutions  to bring about  significant improvement  in  their   global ranking as well  ranks of the Indian institutions against the global players in the market.
Autonomy can  ensure quality and equity of the academics and  more particularly quality of education is by and large   associated  with the degree of autonomy   granted  to the Universities.  The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management(IIMs), the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India(ICAI), the Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI) and the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI)   are granted more or less autonomy in the  academic, financial   and administrative governance domains  and that is why the academic standard and quality  of the products are that of  comparable  standard of international  practice  and  the graduates  from these institutions enjoy competitive edge over the others.
(The author is  Professor of Management, School of Business and Dean-Faculty of Management, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra, Jammu & Kashmir, India)
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