NEW DELHI: The government rolled out its plan on Tuesday to grant more autonomy to better performing central, state and private universities, with UGC giving 60 institutions special status that will allow them to start new courses, offer competitive salaries and set up off-campus centres without approvals.
Two central universities — Jawaharlal Nehru University and University of Hyderabad — are in the top category, along with state universities such as Jadavpur University, Kolkata, Algappa University, Karaikudi, and Nalsar University of Law, Telangana, under the “graded autonomy” scheme. The private universities in the list include O P Jindal Global University, Sonipat, and Pandit Deen Dayal Petroleum University, Gujarat.
HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said the selected universities remain in the ambit of the University Grants Commission but will have the freedom to start new courses, off-campus centres, skill development courses, research parks and other new academic programmes. They will also be able to hire foreign faculty, enrol foreign students, provide incentive-based emoluments to faculty, enter into academic collaborations and run distance learning programmes.
