Autonomy will have No Effect on Fees of Central Universities: Prakash Javadekar

UGC has granted full autonomy to 60 institutions and HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar expressed his and government’s view on the same. According to him, this recognition will not lead to fees hike in the universities and that he has no control over universities through vice-chancellors.

The main aim of the autonomy is to promote quality in the institutes. Through full autonomy, UGC wants to provide them with more flexibility and freedom to expand. As per Javadekar, the government has taken three major decisions: First is the Indian Institute of Management Bill. Through this bill, the government is going to fund them but the control will solely lie in the hand of the institutes. The second bill was associated with providing full freedom to 20 institutes so that they gain global exposure and achieve the world-class standard. The third and the final bill was graded autonomy which was his idea.

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He also expressed his views on the fee structure. According to him, there will be no hike in the fees due to autonomy as state universities and private institutes decide their own fee structure and will continue to do the same.

Javadekar also spoke about the claims that he runs several institutes through vice-chancellor by providing them autonomy. As per him, this is totally unfair as central government plays an important role in appointments as the funding is provided by them. He also suggested that central university offers free education to the students and they should at least pay some minimum fees what they were paying for their high school.

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At last, he also confirmed that government is planning to introduce new online programmes like SWAYAM. They are also providing 15 lakhs digital blackboards from Class 9 to undergraduate level.