“Design To Withdraw Funding”: Teacher’s Body On Grant Of Graded Autonomy To Central Universities
Democratic Teachers Front, a teacher’s group based in Delhi University said the University Grants Commission (UGC)’s move of ‘Grant of Graded Autonomy’ to Central Universities is a design to withdraw funding for any expansion, shifting the burden of expansion and maintenance to students and parents. As per a notification of February 29, 2024, the UGC has granted graded autonomy to eight universities. Four of them including Delhi University have been granted category I graded autonomy while four others have been granted category II graded autonomy.
Universities that have category I graded autonomy are expected to firstly generate more resources by setting up newer programmes (including newer constituent units) without prior approval of the UGC, the teachers’ body alleged.
“These programmes will have exorbitant fees as is already the case for both journalism and Bachelor of Technology courses in Delhi University. Resources can also be “generated” by reducing costs in such programmes which is a euphemism for degradation of pay and service conditions of teachers of these programmes. Another means to raise resources is by letting universities having category I graded autonomy to set up their own open and distance learning programmes with both exorbitant fees and degraded pay and service conditions for teachers,” a statement from the Front said.
Further, it also alleged that hiring of foreign faculty will further increase the fee burden on students and so will incentivised pay and service conditions to attract talented faculty. “But this attraction will also lead to an accelerated dissolution of the teachers’ collective”.
The teachers body called upon the teachers’ collective “to recognise the clear and present danger that graded autonomy poses to the very idea of India which cannot survive the eclipse of public higher education. Students, non-teaching colleagues, parents and teachers from all over India must rally together to redeem the idea of India by resisting and defeating this egregious move towards graded autonomy”.
