UGC grants autonomous status to five colleges
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, May 10 2024: Out of the 199 colleges affiliated to Manipur University, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has granted autonomous status to five colleges of the state.

Of the five colleges, two had been granted the autonomous status prior to the conflict on May 3 last year, while the remaining three received the status only recently.

The three new autonomous colleges are Rayburn College, BSF Road Gangpimual, Churachandpur district; Churachandpur College, Tipaimukh Road Junction District Hospital; and Moreh College, Chikim Village, Tengnoupal district.

Speaking to The People's Chronicle in this regard, an official of Manipur University said that although MU is now a central university under UGC, the power to grant autonomous status to affiliated colleges lies at the hands of UGC.

The first affiliate college of MU to receive the autonomous status was Oriental College, Takyel (Imphal West) in 2014 .

Following this, Don Bosco College, Maram (Senapati) was granted the autonomous status in 2020.Explaining that the autonomous status meant giving the affiliated colleges some autonomy, Manipur University registrar said that all students of the colleges will receive certificates from MU upon passing.

While autonomous colleges may not follow the government rules and regulations, they must follow UGC norms and regulations with the freedom to decide on daily tasks, syllabus, admission procedures, and commencement of session and examination schedules.

The UGC has to follow the University Grants Commission (Conferment of Autonomous Status Upon Colleges and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in Autonomy Colleges) Regulations while granting autonomous status to colleges, with the regulations open to changes from time to time.

On top of this, as per the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the objective is to improve the innovation capacity, self-governance and academic freedom of autonomous institutions.

In this regard, new UGC regulations were formulated in April, 2023.As per the new regulation, colleges can submit an application for attaining autonomy on the portal of UGC at any given time of the year.

Accordingly, Rayburn College filed an application for autonomous status.

After UGC informed MU, the varsity (MU) brought up the matter to the Academic Council for discussion.

However, as the Academic Council did not provide a report, the notification granting autonomous status to Rayburn College could not be issued, the registrar recounted.

Nonetheless, as per the recommendation of the Standing Committee on Autoijomous Colleges, UGC instructed MU on January 19 this year to announce that a UGC meeting on January 16 had granted autonomous status to Moreh College and Churachandpur College under Clause 7.4 of UGC (Conferment of Autonomous Status Upon Colleges and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in Autonomy Colleges) Regulations, 2023 for a period of five years from academic session 2024-25 to 2028-29 .

Subsequently, MU issued a notification on May 3 this year, announcing the autonomous status of Moreh College and Churachandpur College.

In this regard, MU did not actively push for the autonomous status of the three colleges to UGC.

The autonomous status was granted by UGC after the colleges filed the application for the same and a standing committee examined whether the colleges fulfilled the.

criteria, norms and regulations, the registrar elaborated.

Comment