JNUTA Statement On ‘Grant of Autonomy’ To Certain Institutions Of Higher Education
The JNUTA notes that the MHRD press release yesterday issued by the Minister himself claims to have granted ‘autonomy to 60 Higher Educational Institutions which have maintained high academic standards’. JNU is the first institution listed in this release which is a tacit acknowledgment of JNU’s excellence in achievement and maintenance of academic standards even in the face of constant attack and vilification in the last two years. However, the question that we ask as a community of teachers to address this ‘grant of autonomy’ is autonomy from what, autonomy for whom and autonomy for what purpose?
It must be noted that this announcement is in keeping with and follows from the MHRD gazette notification dated 12 February 2018 title University Grants Commission [Categorisation of Universities (Only) for Grant of Graded Autonomy] Regulations, 2018. This legislation is yet to be passed by Parliament and is open to contestation.
It must also be noted that the autonomy clause was part of the draft National Education Policy of the current government in power. The government had to withdraw the draft in face of opposition in the Rajya Sabha. So it has now pushed those provisions by the back door using the UGC as a pliant body. The choice of institutions based on accredition and rankings completely overlooks the many criticisms of such parametric ‘one-size-fits-all’ criterion of such standard ranking processes.
Clauses 4.6 and 4.7 of the gazette notification suggests an effective 20% reservation for foreign nationals in both studentships and faculty positions over and above the total sanctioned strength. This will then reduce the proportion of the potential job pool for Indian academics in India and also will reduce the proportion of seats available for Indian students. This is a discriminatory clause privileging foreign citizenships over Indian ones. It also implies an overall shrinking of the potential pool of reserved positions that would be available for teachers and students from marginalized communities. Thus in the name of autonomy, this is a direct and severe attack on reservations and affirmative action in public institutions. Further, Clause 4.8 suggests differential pay structures and institutionalization of variable incentive structures for teachers that is bound to affect quality and disempower teachers and directly conflicts the principle of equal pay for equal work.
Clauses 4.1 to 4.4 of the gazette notification allow these institutions to start new programmes/departments/schools/centres, allow opening of off-campus centres, start skill courses, incubation centres, research parks etc without approval from the UGC and these are to be done through ‘self-financing’ – the codeword for commercialization and blatant privatization of public education with differential fee structures, compromising the questions of equity and access which are the founding principles of public higher education institutions like JNU.
The exemption clauses for new programmes from any kind of inspection and exemption of annual monitoring will also severely compromise quality of these institutions. We can already see some of the effects of this by the actions of the JNU administration in anticipation of this autonomy in which new schools of engineering and management are being opened without due process to maintain academic quality and how faculty positions from existing schools are being diverted to this end which will affect the functioning, scope of expansion and quality of these existing programmes and centres/schools due to understaffing.
The so-called autonomy is an impunity being bestowed on authoritarian university administrations like the current dispensation in JNU to flouts all rules, norms and codes and exercise unchecked power in privatizing universities and undo the agenda of social justice.
Thus this so-called autonomy is in direct conflict with the principles of democratic governance, accountability, equity, access, social justice and excellence as the hallmark of quality. The vision of the Public University, its governance, finance and representational structures (including reservation policy) in Central Universities are all governed by the various laws of the land and no proposal can be made to change these structures without checking the legality and also the social implication of such proposal on the questions of access, equity and social justice in higher education which are all constituents of ‘quality’.
The MHRD notification of 12 February 2018 and all announcements flowing from it have to be debated and discussed in Parliament. JNUTA will study all related legislation and regulation and issue a more detailed response. JNUTA will also do everything possible with FEDCUTA and AIFUCTO to resist this latest attack on the very notion of the pubic university by the ruling regime in the name of autonomy.
It must be noted that this announcement is in keeping with and follows from the MHRD gazette notification dated 12 February 2018 title University Grants Commission [Categorisation of Universities (Only) for Grant of Graded Autonomy] Regulations, 2018. This legislation is yet to be passed by Parliament and is open to contestation.
It must also be noted that the autonomy clause was part of the draft National Education Policy of the current government in power. The government had to withdraw the draft in face of opposition in the Rajya Sabha. So it has now pushed those provisions by the back door using the UGC as a pliant body. The choice of institutions based on accredition and rankings completely overlooks the many criticisms of such parametric ‘one-size-fits-all’ criterion of such standard ranking processes.
Clauses 4.6 and 4.7 of the gazette notification suggests an effective 20% reservation for foreign nationals in both studentships and faculty positions over and above the total sanctioned strength. This will then reduce the proportion of the potential job pool for Indian academics in India and also will reduce the proportion of seats available for Indian students. This is a discriminatory clause privileging foreign citizenships over Indian ones. It also implies an overall shrinking of the potential pool of reserved positions that would be available for teachers and students from marginalized communities. Thus in the name of autonomy, this is a direct and severe attack on reservations and affirmative action in public institutions. Further, Clause 4.8 suggests differential pay structures and institutionalization of variable incentive structures for teachers that is bound to affect quality and disempower teachers and directly conflicts the principle of equal pay for equal work.
Clauses 4.1 to 4.4 of the gazette notification allow these institutions to start new programmes/departments/schools/centres, allow opening of off-campus centres, start skill courses, incubation centres, research parks etc without approval from the UGC and these are to be done through ‘self-financing’ – the codeword for commercialization and blatant privatization of public education with differential fee structures, compromising the questions of equity and access which are the founding principles of public higher education institutions like JNU.
The exemption clauses for new programmes from any kind of inspection and exemption of annual monitoring will also severely compromise quality of these institutions. We can already see some of the effects of this by the actions of the JNU administration in anticipation of this autonomy in which new schools of engineering and management are being opened without due process to maintain academic quality and how faculty positions from existing schools are being diverted to this end which will affect the functioning, scope of expansion and quality of these existing programmes and centres/schools due to understaffing.
The so-called autonomy is an impunity being bestowed on authoritarian university administrations like the current dispensation in JNU to flouts all rules, norms and codes and exercise unchecked power in privatizing universities and undo the agenda of social justice.
Thus this so-called autonomy is in direct conflict with the principles of democratic governance, accountability, equity, access, social justice and excellence as the hallmark of quality. The vision of the Public University, its governance, finance and representational structures (including reservation policy) in Central Universities are all governed by the various laws of the land and no proposal can be made to change these structures without checking the legality and also the social implication of such proposal on the questions of access, equity and social justice in higher education which are all constituents of ‘quality’.
The MHRD notification of 12 February 2018 and all announcements flowing from it have to be debated and discussed in Parliament. JNUTA will study all related legislation and regulation and issue a more detailed response. JNUTA will also do everything possible with FEDCUTA and AIFUCTO to resist this latest attack on the very notion of the pubic university by the ruling regime in the name of autonomy.
Sonajharia Minz Sudhir K Suthar
President Secretary
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