All Indian colleges should be autonomous: AICTE chief Anil Sahasrabudhe

The past two decades have seen an exponential rise in the number of institutions but there are hardly any takers
Anil Sahasrabudhe said that AICTE should be a facilitator rather than a regulatory body (Pic: TNIE)
Anil Sahasrabudhe said that AICTE should be a facilitator rather than a regulatory body (Pic: TNIE)

India should let go of the system of affiliation as it is not just outdated but is also hampering the process of growth of the whole Indian subcontinent, said AICTE Chairman, Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe. Speaking at a plenary of Academic Regulatory Bodies at the Indian Science Congress at LPU, Jalandhar, Sahasrabudhe said that all institutions should be awarded autonomy and they should be able to form their own syllabus. "The whole world has given up the system (of affiliation). We learnt it from UK and now they too have moved on," he said and added that several colleges hadn't updated their syllabus in ages.

He said that AICTE should be a facilitator rather than a regulatory body. "The Kaw committee report (AICTE review committee report) suggested they every institution should be granted autonomy and they should be able to set their own curriculum, teaching and learning methods and innovations finally leading them to excel on their own." Resonating with the content of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech, he added that India needs to regain the glory of its past.

Indian Science Congress: Agriculture is an integral part of India and private colleges should take up courses on agriculture

The past two decades have seen an exponential rise in the number of institutions. "But there are no takers," said Sahasrabudhe. "Because the institutions don't change their curriculum for ages. We have made it a point to see that the curriculums are now updated regularly. We have also set a model curriculum which need not be followed by the letter but anyone can adapt it and tweak it to suffice for their localised needs."

He also mentioned that the student-teacher relationship should also be healthy and there should be a strong bond between the two. "We have also planned that there will be no classes for the students who join engineering for the first three months," said the chairman. "But there will be rigorous classes on art, history, culture etc for holistic development of the children."

Dr Bhushan Patwardhan, Vice-Chairman, UGC, who was also present at the session added that agriculture is an integral part of India and that private colleges should take up courses on agriculture. He also said that UGC is planning to implement a credit bank system where you can earn credits by attending a course which might not have any relation whatsoever to what you study. "We want to promote interdisciplinary study. There will obviously be an expiry on the credits earned but one can study any course he or she fancies," said Patwardhan.

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