academic       administration      by     way      of
       autonomous    colleges   by   changing  the Acts,
      Statutes and governance patterns of universities
       is  essential    for   promoting   the  independent
      initiatives of teachers and individual institutions  
      Several colleges of engineering and institutes of 
      higher  technical  education  in the country have
      recently   adopted    autonomy   for   the purpose
      of   availing   international   and    multinational
      projects     for     infrastructure     and  academic
      development.   This    should    be    possible   for
      the   colleges   of  Arts,  Science  and  Commerce
      also which are in no way  second  in  importance
      or   relevance,   if   meaningful   approaches  are
      adopted.
     There are colleges around the country where the 
      quality  of  undergraduate teaching is very high. 
     Many of these colleges have used their autonomy 
      in   an   innovative   manner   to   achieve  better 
     standards   in   teaching.   The UGC has initiated 
     steps to identify  such  colleges and give them the 
     status of "College with Potential for Excellence" 
     and fund  them  substantially to help them attain 
     even higher standards in teaching. Many colleges 
     also impart  postgraduate education and conduct 
     research. There is a need to pay special attention 
     to  these  colleges.  With  this  aspect  in view, the 
     UGC     intends     to     support     colleges    with 
      postgraduate    programmes    to   improve   and 
     strengthen their infrastructure. The objectives of 
     the schemes are: strengthening the academic and 
     physical  infrastructure  for  achieving excellence 
     in teaching,  research and outreach programmes; 
     promoting   flexible   and   effective  governance; 
     enhancing   the   quality   of   the    learning   and 
     teaching   process   at   the   undergraduate    and 
     postgraduate   levels   with   the  help of a flexible 
     credit-based  modular  system, and a whole range 
     of   innovations   currently     accepted    globally; 
     promoting  academic programmes relevant to the 
     socio-economic   needs  of  the  nation; improving 
     undergraduate   education   in   colleges   by    the 
     interfacing   of  the  PG  programmes; promoting 
     networking     with     centres/departments      and 
     laboratories   around  the  country; and achieving 
     global  standards   of   excellence   in   education, 
     training   and   research.   The  University Grants 
     Commission  envisages  such  colleges  to achieve 
     excellence   in  teaching  and  also   to   initiate  a 
     culture     of     research    in    such    institutions. 
    Approximately  150  colleges all over India would

     
     be   identified   as   colleges   with   potential   for
     excellence   and   the  UGC   would support them
     to   improve   their  academic  infrastructure. The 
     objective  of   the   programme  is   to allow good 
     colleges   to  innovate   and  experiment   in    the 
     undergraduate      programme,    using     modern 
     methods   of   learning  and  evaluation,  and    to 
     introduce   a   flexible   approach  in selections of  
     courses at the degree level.
     It  is  anticipated  that such  colleges would act as 
     models    for    other    institutions  in  aspects like 
    methods    of    operation,    new    and    improved 
     approaches  to  teaching, learning and evaluation, 
     organization   and management, healthy practices 
     for academic    excellence and an effective system 
    of governance.
    It is high time that the governments make effective 
    interventions   to r estructure the affiliation system 
    which   has   become   almost   dysfunctional.   We 
    started this system in 1857 with Bombay, Calcutta 
    and Madras which were modeled on the University 
    of   London.    Even   though   London   University 
    abandoned  that  model in 1858 and almost all the 
    countries  in the  world discontinued the affiliation 
    system  now,  we  are  still stuck with the ills of the 
    affiliation  system.  In  this  connection, it is rather 
    inevitable    that    we   give   once   again  serious
    thoughts   to    the    Gajendragadkar   Committee 
    Report  on restructuring the affiliation system and 
    the      Kothari      Commission      Report     which 
    recommends,    inter    alia,   autonomous colleges 
    which   have  the  freedom  with  accountability to 
    admit students, frame the syllabi, initiate academic 
    innovations and conduct examinations. Combining 
    with  the  recent  proposal  of  the UGC regarding 
    degree granting colleges,these institutions would in 
    a sense be mini universities.