UGC grants full autonomy to 62 higher educational institutions: Prakash Javadekar

The University Grants Commission (UGC) approved full autonomy for 62 higher educational institutions, including JNU, BHU, AMU, TERI and University of Hyderabad, which have maintained high standards of excellence. 

The decision was taken at a UGC meeting where five central universities, 21 state universities, 26 private universities besides 10 other colleges were granted autonomy under the Autonomous Colleges Regulation.

Union Human Resource Development minister Prakash Javadekar hailed as "historic" the UGC move which will enable the selected institutes to decide their admission procedure, fee structure and curriculum, among others.

"Today is a historic day for higher education in India. These quality institutions will get complete autonomy by which they can start new courses, new departments, new programmes, off campuses, skill courses, research parks, appoint foreign faculty, take foreign students , offer variable incentive packages, introduce online distance learning," Javadekar told reporters here. 

He said these institutes can also get into academic collaboration with top five hundred universities of the world. 

"And for all of this they will not have to come to the regulator again and again for seeking permission because they have maintained quality and achieved a benchmark of 3.26 and above NAAC (National Accreditation and Assessment Council) ranking," he added.