Universities not to affiliate over 300 colleges, says Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal

NEW DELHI: Universities will not be able to provide affiliation to more than 300 colleges with the new National Education Policy (NEP) proposing granting more autonomy to colleges and phasing out affiliation system, Union minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said on Wednesday.

"I visited a university recently and when I asked the vice chancellor how many colleges are affiliated to that university he said 800 degree colleges. I thought I heard him wrong. I asked him again and he said 800. It was a convocation ceremony. I was surprised. Can any VC remember the names of the principals of 800 degree colleges?" the Union education minister asked. He was addressing a virtual session on 'Education post COVID-19'.

"Can he or she keep a tab on the quality and functions of such a huge number of colleges? That is why in the NEP we are saying that in a phased manner we will work on this. One university will not affiliate more than 300 colleges and for that if we need to increase the number of universities we will do that," Nishank said.

As per the new policy approved by the Union Cabinet last month, the system of affiliation will be phased out over 15 years and a stage-wise mechanism for granting graded autonomy to colleges, through a transparent system of graded accreditation, will be established.

Over a period of time, it is envisaged that every college would develop into either an autonomous degree-granting college, or a constituent college of a university.

"We have 45,000 degree colleges of which only 8,000 are autonomous. Based on their quality in a phase manner we will improve their grading and as they progress we will grant them a graded autonomy," he said.

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