UGC grants Delhi University autonomy; DU can launch off-campus centres, courses

NEW DELHI : The University Grants Commission (UGC), the top regulator for higher education, has designated Delhi University (DU) as a category-1 university as per its 2018 “graded autonomy” regulations. Category-1 is the highest category defined by the 2018 regulations, affording institutions so designated the highest level of autonomy.

A category-1 university can start a new programme or skill courses, set up off-campus centres, open research parks or innovation centres and hire foreign faculty – all without the approval of UGC. Such universities can also take in more foreign students than domestic students and “are free to fix and charge fees from foreign students without any restriction”. These universities can also start open and distance learning mode courses and collaborate with foreign institutions without the approval of UGC.

However, some Academic Council members dissented against the DU decision to apply for category-1 status. They said that the request was never placed before the Academic council. They also said that this status will give DU the "permission to expand primarily through increase in students' fees" and called it a "major blow to the idea of inclusion and education for all".

A section of Academic Council members protested vehemently against this change. “The present model of graded autonomy will only pave the way for online courses, self-financing and gradually to the defragmentation of DU itself because the same is also being solicited by its component colleges,” said Vikas Gupta, an elected member of DU’s academic council. He also pointed out that this grant of autonomy is “meaningless” when juxtaposed with reforms imposed upon DU through central diktat such as the Common University Entrance Test for admissions and “curricular impositions” such as “value-addition courses”.

Abha Dev Habib, physics teacher and former member of the executive council, said that autonomy will come with “steep fee structures”.

Delhi University and UGC regulations

“The proposal received from the University of Delhi under the above UGC Regulations have been examined and considered by the commission in its 571st meeting, held on July 25. The commission has approved category-1 status to University of Delhi in accordance with the provisions of the mentioned UGC regulations,” the UGC said in a notice dated August 8,2023.

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According to the UGC regulations, a university will be in category-1 institutions granted autonomy if

• It has been accredited by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) with a score of 3.51 or above or;

• It has received a corresponding accreditation grade or score from a reputed accreditation agency empanelled by the UGC or;

• It has been ranked among top 500 of reputed world rankings, such as Times Higher Education or QS ranking

Delhi University has a NAAC score of 3.25 and is ranked 407 in the QS World University Rankings 2024.

Autonomy will lead to fee hike: Teachers

Some teachers argued that graded autonomy is an excuse to increase fees. They said that the university is already charging exorbitant fees from students in the name of self-financed courses.

For instance, the recently-approved self-financed five-year integrated law course at DU will cost Rs 1.9 lakh per year

“Protest against this move of pushing the university towards self-financing courses in the garb of "autonomy" is going on in the Academic Council meeting. Steep fee structures of the newly-launched courses show the effect of HEFA loans and autonomy,” said Dev-Habib, also secretary of the Democratic Teachers' Front.

Several Academic Council members, in a dissent note, said: "Operationalisation of this autonomy will mean that all courses henceforth will be in self-financing mode and employees, both teaching and non-teaching, hired for these new departments or courses will be on contract basis."

Delhi University, in December 2022, had submitted a proposal for a loan of Rs 940 crore from Higher Education Finance Agency (HEFA) citing “very little allocation” from the central government. Teachers had said that relying on such a hefty loan will force the university to increase fees and thereby make the university unaffordable for marginalised students.

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Teachers also said that this graded autonomy is meaningless when the university has to subscribe to external structures such as the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) and the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.

“The present idea of graded autonomy is completely meaningless when under NEP, we are forced to comply with external structure like the CUET and curricular impositions such as Value Addition Courses (VAC), skill enhancement courses (SEC) and others. These are otherwise the areas where any university needs to function autonomously from the pressure of the ruling establishment. The present model of graded autonomy will only pave the way for online courses, self-financing and gradually to the defragmentation of DU itself because the same is also being solicited by its component colleges,” said Gupta. “It is a model of selling education resulting in heavy fee hikes garbed under the pretext of concessions and scholarships. It also clearly implies exclusion of the bulk majority of historically deprived and financially weaker sections of Indian society.”