Graded autonomy to promote excellence in higher education

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Recognising the need to create an enabling environment whereby Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) can become institutions of global excellence, autonomy is pivotal to promote and institutionalize excellence in higher education. The regulatory framework has recognized this need and towards this direction, the UGC (Categorisation of Universities (Only) for Grant of Graded Autonomy) Regulations, 2018, were notified on February 12, 2018. These regulations are aimed to provide autonomy to the HEIs based on quality benchmarks.

Under these Regulations, Universities having NAAC scrore of 3.51 or above or those who have received a corresponding score/grade from a reputed accreditation agency empanelled by the UGC or have been ranked among top 500 in world rankings are placed in Category-I. Universities having NAAC score of 3.26 and above, up to 3.50 or have received a corresponding accreditation grade/score from a reputed Accreditation Agency empanelled by the UGC are placed in Category-II. The Universities which do not come under the above two categories are placed in Category-III.

Category I & II Universities may hire foreign faculty without approval of the Commission, who have taught at an institution appearing in top five hundred of any of the world renowned ranking frameworks such as the Times Higher Education World University Rankings or QS  Rankings up to 20% over and above their total sanctioned faculty strength. Universities will have the freedom to hire foreign faculty on “tenure/contract” basis as per the terms and conditions approved by their Governing Council/Statutory bodies. Since the recruitment of foreign faculty is over and above the sanctioned strength of an Institution, the implementation of the reservation policy of the Government in teaching positions will not be disturbed.

This information was given by the Minister of State (HRD) Dr Satya Pal Singh on July 23, 2018, in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question.