Small is beautiful
How will smaller universities enhance education quality in the country?

By Meha Mathur
May 08, 2009: As graduate and postgraduate students get down to writing their exams, and as the admission session for a new batch nears, universities across the country keep other businesses aside to conduct these two complex exercises. Why should universities be bogged down with these tasks, while its primary role should be that of fostering research and engaging scholars in publishing papers, not doing paperwork?

If the recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission, whose tenure came to end on March 31, 2009, find acceptance, this scenario would change. Among the key recommendations of the NKC, is the suggestion to break down our behemoth universities into smaller clusters. The NKC has emphasized the following issues:

• Universities should be doing what they were originally meant to do: research.
  
• The task of conducting admissions, teacher appointments, and examinations should not be thrust upon universities.
  
• A separate board, on the lines of CBSE, can be created to oversee such tasks. After all, CBSE conducts the all-India school exams quite successfully.
  
• Cluster of colleges can come together to form one university.

Clusters for decongestion
Sunil Bahri, who was the executive director of NKC, says, “Universities are as such overburdened. We have a very large young population, who need college education. So we set up colleges under existing universities. Now universities, which are supposed to be research centres, became burdened with administering a large number of colleges, conducting exams, overseeing faculty recruitment and so on… What we are suggesting is creation of a board for undergraduate education, just as you have the CBSE.”

To reduce the burden on universities, cluster approach is a viable alternative, says Bahri, wherein, for example, colleges like St Stephens, Hindu, SRCC and LSR could come together and form a university. This would help the colleges update their curricula more regularly. But Bahri adds, “We envisage that the colleges that can potentially disaffiliate from the Delhi University may not want to do so. And colleges which are not independent enough may want to do so for other reasons.”

He feels that the smaller clusters would also rid the good institutes of the convoy problem. “What is happening in a large university is the convoy problem. You have SRCC which has best of economics students and you have the worst college which also teaches economics. They all are part of the same system. You don’t have to burden the university with the best and the worst because the worst is going to decide what you are going to do.”

Are they ready?
Bahri cites the example of Jawaharlal Nehru University which is not an affiliating university and whose sole focus is research. That, he feels, is the model for any university. On their part, colleges too are ready to be removed from under the umbrella set up of a university and feel they are equipped enough to handle their affairs. Dr A Albert Muthumalai S, principal, Loyola College, Chennai, thinks on those lines, citing the example of deemed universities which are managing their affairs. “Deemed universities are directly under UGC. As organizations they have to develop on their own.” Colleges, he feels, can also work on the same lines. He points at the regulations, which in fact hamper an institute’s growth. “We have to wait for so many things. The main constraint is the restriction on the number of students.” He suggests autonomous colleges getting degree-awarding status, which would be one way of move towards creation of new universities.