The committee made by State Higher Education Council to study the functioning of autonomous colleges and institutes would be organising the second round of public hearing in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on February 9, 2018.
The public hearing is open for students, parents, teachers, guardians, students associations, parent-teacher association members and the general public. The public hearing on Kerala Autonomous Colleges will be held at Kerala State Higher Education Council’s headquarter on the Priyadarshini Planatorium compound at PMG. The timings for the same are 10 am to 1 pm.
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Earlier, the public hearing was organised for teacher associations and student. The committee was set by the council due to the allegations that some of the autonomous colleges were found violating and misusing the norms and directives of state universities that these colleges are affiliated with.
It was UDF government that granted few colleges with academic autonomy and pushed them for same even though there were severe opposition and protest against them. These colleges met with a lot of opposition from students and teachers associations as they opposed to this idea ever since it was mooted by the previous government.
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As per the sources, the committee is supposed to conduct a study on these autonomous colleges and have to prepare a report on the same. They have to present the same report to Council Chairman, Rajan Gurukkal. At present, Kerala has 18 autonomous colleges affiliated with 3 universities- Kerala University, Calicut University & Mahatma Gandhi University.