The Delhi University's Hindu College Staff Association intensified its protest against the administration's autonomy move from the University Grants Commission (UGC). The association initiated a mass signature campaign at the campus on Tuesday.
Claiming that the Scheme of Autonomous Colleges will have far-reaching adverse implications on the health of the public-funded system of higher education, the autonomous body of staff members unanimously rejected the move. "Self-financing courses will lead to privatisation of public-funded higher education and reputed DU colleges will be used as money spinning shops for commercial courses by administration (Businessmen/Industrialists)," the association said in a statement.
Raising concerns over the fee-hike after autonomy, they said,"Replacing public funding with internal receipts would clearly force the college authorities to increase student fees. It will also force students from marginalised sections out of mainstream education unless they are prepared to pay prohibitively high fees."
"Therefore, Hindu College Staff Association appeals all teaching staff members to support our signature campaign against Graded Autonomy Scheme and its imposition on reputed colleges, including our college as an attempt to withdraw public funding to cut expenditure on higher education," it said.
Hindu College had recently approached the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry seeking answers to its autonomy-related queries. The move was opposed by staff members who claimed that the administration did not consult the stakeholders. Principal Anju Shrivastava, however, said that everything will be communicated to the staff members before moving ahead. "Nothing official has happened as of now and when anything will happen, we will first discuss it with our staff members," she said.
The scheme offers academic and operative freedom to the colleges. It enables a college to design and structure its own courses of study and syllabi to suit local needs and to devise innovative methods of teaching, examination and evaluation. Any number of colleges under a university, fulfilling a set criteria, can apply for UGC autonomy under this scheme.
Earlier on Friday, the UGC held a workshop to clarify doubts regarding autonomy scheme and principals of around 20 DU colleges attended it. The move created an uproar on the campus with officials terming it an attempt of 'privatisation' and 'commercialisation'.
