UNIVERSITY GOVERNANCE IN INDIA

The system of education in India evolved from the early Gurukul system of the Vedic and
Upanishadic period to a huge University at Takshasila in the 6th century B.C. and then
two universities namely Nalanda and Vikramsila were established in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. respectively. The first institution to be given the status of university was Sera
Moore College, near Calcutta in 1829. The first three universities established in India in
1857 were at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, which were affiliating universities, followed
the model of the London University. Although the University of London itself has
undergone profound changes during the last 100 years of its existence, the pattern of the
first Indian Universities still remains more or less what it was at the beginning, in spite of
certain important modifications that have been made in the course of the years.

The Four Models of University Governance

i.

Unicameral Governance
Governed by a single governing body responsible for both administrative
and academic matters.

ii.

Bicameral Governance
Governed by two legislative bodies:
i. a governing board and
ii. a senate or a university/educational council

iii.

Tri-cameral Governance
Governed by three legislative bodies
I. a governing board
II. a senate
III. an university/educational council
Hybrid Governance

iv.

Hybrid Governance / Shared governance is a new structure in governance where

the decision-making capacity of the university is shared by those affected by the
decisions; these include the boards, administrators, faculty, staff and students. It
exists today in higher education because of trends in universities and colleges to
reflect a growing convergence between conventional and distance learning modes
or technology modes.

The normal organization of Indian University Governance is as follows:

There is a Chancellor who is usually a figurehead. He may be the President of the country
or the Governor of a State. He has no administrative function, but may preside at
ceremonial functions such as Convocations for the award of degrees. The executive head
of a University is the Vice-Chancellor who may be a full-time paid officer or an honorary
one. He presides over the meetings of the various Councils of his University and is the
mouthpiece of the University to the outside world. The Vice-Chancellor is usually
appointed by the Chancellor on the recommendation of the Syndicate or Senate; but
there are considerable differences in the practice in the different Universities.
The chief administrative officer is the Registrar, who deals with all correspondence,
prepares minutes of all meetings and controls the University office. He is a full time paid
officer. In addition to these officers, there may be a Pro-Chancellor and a Pro-ViceChancellor. Only four or five Indian Universities have these additional officers. The
"authorities" of a University are the Executive Council (called the Syndicate in some
Universities), the Court or Senate, the Academic Council, and the Faculties.
The Executive Council (or Syndicate) and the Court (or Senate) have the responsibility of
framing Statutes and regulations and dealing with all matters connected with the
organization and administration of the University's affairs. They are composed of persons
representing various interests in the life of the University and the community in which the
University exists. Posts of the members of these bodies are elected by different
constituencies, but a few are nominated by the Chancellor.
The Academic Council deals with academic questions generally, and is chiefly concerned
with courses of study and the organization of teaching and examinations. It co-ordinates
the work of the various Faculties. The usual Faculties are those of Arts, Science, Medicine,
Law, etc. The head of a Faculty is called the Dean and is usually a Professor of the
University. It is the Dean's business to attend to the framing and working of the various
courses of study in his Faculty. A Faculty usually has several Boards of Study to help it to
frame syllabuses in different subjects, appoint examiners etc. Faculties which are
concerned exclusively with subjects of post-graduate study, such as education, law, etc.,
tend to become somewhat like autonomous colleges; but Faculties of Arts, Science, etc.
have to co-ordinate the work of undergraduate and postgraduate classes, and, in the
case of the affiliating Universities, to deal with a large number of institutions. These
Faculties consist of a number of Departments and each Department has its own Head or
Chairman or Director who is responsible to the Dean. Quite frequently the Dean's only

function is to preside at meetings of the Faculty, and maintain a general supervision over
the various Departments of teaching.
College which form parts of a University are usually autonomous institutions which may
have been set up by private agencies or by Government or by the University itself. The
University exercises some control over the appointment of the teaching staff of these
Colleges. The head of a College is the Principal who is responsible for the supervision of
the academic and administrative work of his institution. Some Colleges are miniature
Universities, having provision for several subjects of study leading up to the research
degree stage. But a College is not free to prepare its own syllabuses and award its own
degrees. It prepares candidates for examinations conducted by the University to which it is
affiliated or of which it is a constituent part. The number of students in a College may vary
from a few hundred to a few thousand.

The Problem with the Affiliated Colleges

Historically, the affiliating system of colleges was originally designed when their number in
university was less. The university could then effectively oversee the working of its affiliated
colleges, act as an examining body and award degrees. However, with the rapidly
growing increase in the number of colleges / educational institutions, the system became
unmanageable and started losing its governance. Now it is becoming increasingly
difficult for any university even to effectively attend to the varied needs of the affiliated /
constituent individual colleges in a regular way and that too within the reasonable time.
The Acts, Statutes, Ordinances and Regulations of the university and its common system,
governing all colleges irrespective of their characteristic strength, weaknesses and
locations, have adversely affected the academic development of individual colleges.
Virtually all affiliated/ constituent colleges of a university are supposed to strictly adhere
to the given system and any initiative or innovation, outside the given ambit, taken by a
particular college at its own cost, is often treated by the university as an infringement of its
dictum. Since any college can hardly afford the unnecessary displeasure of its parent
university even in respect of the matters falling in the gray areas, they look to the parent
University for Guidance. This delimitation restricts their involvement / initiative in the field
of higher education and thus adversely affects healthy development of the colleges as well
as the university. Moreover, what is lamentable is that the existing system hardly
encourages leadership in the field of higher education and prefers to operate in a
domineering style. In the given scenario, the colleges are required to follow the syllabus
and academic calendar of the university. They do not have the freedom to modernize
their curricula to make it relevant to the locale specific needs, resources and aspirations.

Moreover, the colleges having capacity and capability for offering programmes of higher
standards do not have the freedom to do so within the prevailing routine and rigid
bureaucratic style of functioning of the university system.
The University's monitoring of the quality of teaching, research, physical facilities like
library and laboratory equipment is often nominal. Although the university sets standards,
there is no proper mechanism to monitor the observance of those standards. As it stands
the University has become a huge examination mechanism conducting exams of
thousands of students every year in regular and private streams, evaluating answer books
and declaring results. The system of affiliation gives the University an upper hand to
manipulate and put road blocks and creates dependency syndrome, instead of helping
out colleges seeking affiliation to improve the quality of education and the gross
enrollment ratio.
The Concept of Autonomy
The affiliation system which persisted since 1857 worked well during the early decades
when the number of colleges affiliated to the universities was small and the universities
had direct interest and close association with the programmes and performance of its
affiliated colleges. During the last few decades, however, the number of colleges affiliated
to universities has grown to almost unmanageable proportions. The relationship between
the universities and affiliated colleges has degraded to merely filling up performa and
chasing the files that are stranded at different offices, reducing the status of affiliated
colleges to mechanical entities. While evolving new directions for higher education and
strengthening its quality and relevance, the various Commissions on education underlined
the structural weakness of the affiliation system which inhibited the implementation of their
major recommendations. College autonomy, in a phased manner was, therefore,
advocated as a possible solution.
Since 1968 when the first National Policy on Education based on Kothari Commission
report was adopted, there have been continued emphases on changing the affiliation
system of colleges. The Kothari Commission (1964-66) has formally recommended
college autonomy for the first time in India. In 1969, Dr. Gajendra Gadkar committee
also suggested the concept of autonomy to the university department.

The concept of autonomy is a radical departure from the existing affiliating system to
self-governance. The basic premise is that the college conferred with the status of
autonomy shall exercise complete academic freedom in its functioning and for this
purpose shall be required to perform many of the functions of its parent university.
Revising / innovating / restructuring curricula, designing new courses, working out its own
assessment / examination / evaluation system and declaring results. In addition to these
functions, an autonomous college shall have to carry out many other ancillary functions,
which were hitherto being performed by the affiliating university.
Autonomy in principle enables a college to develop and propose programmes that are
considered relevant by that college, to its immediate environment as well as the country as
a whole. In other words, a college should be able to identify the aspirations of the
community that is around it and effectively translate those aspirations into a viable
academic programme.
The main thrust in an Autonomous college is maintaining and promoting academic
excellence among its students. A substantial qualitative development in the students
attitude, basic improvement in discipline, better staff and student interaction and higher
employability are some of the key benefits of autonomy.
The National Policy on Education
autonomous colleges.

(1986-92) formulated the following objectives for

An autonomous college will have the freedom to:

determine and prescribe its own courses of study and syllabi, and restructure
and redesign the courses to suit local needs; and
prescribe rules for admission in consonance with the reservation policy of the
state government
Evolve methods of assessment of students? performance, the conduct of
examinations and notification of results.
Use modern tools of educational technology to achieve higher standards and
greater creativity; and
Promote healthy practices such as community service, extension activities,
projects for the benefit of the society at large, neighbourhood programmes etc.

Governance of an Autonomous College:

The college will have the following committees to ensure proper management of
academic, financial and general administrative affairs.
The following are statutory bodies:
o Governing Body
o Academic Council
o Board of Studies
o Finance Committee
Governing Body:
Subject to the existing provision in the bye-laws of respective college and rules laid down
by the state government, the governing body of the colleges have powers to:
Fix the fees and other charges payable by the students of the college on the
recommendations of the Finance Committee.
Institute scholarships, fellowships, studentships, medals, prizes and certificates on
the recommendations of the Academic Council
Approve institution of new programmes of study leading to degrees and/or
diplomas.
Perform such other functions and institute committees, as may be necessary and
deemed fit for the proper development, and fulfil the objectives for which the
college has been declared as autonomous.
Academic Council:
The Academic Council will be solely responsible for all academic matters, such as,
framing of academic policy, approval of courses, regulations and syllabi, etc. The Council
will involve faculty at all levels and also experts from outside, including representatives of
the university and the government. The decisions taken by the Academic Council will not
be subject to any further ratification by the Academic Council or other statutory bodies of
the university.
Academic Council will have powers to:
Scrutinise and approve the proposals with or without modification of the Boards of
Studies with regard to courses of study, academic regulations, curricula, syllabi and
modifications thereof, instructional and evaluation arrangements, methods,
procedures relevant thereto etc., provided that where the Academic Council differs
on any proposal, it will have the right to return the matter for reconsideration to the
Board of Studies concerned or reject it, after giving reasons to do so.

 Make regulations regarding the admission of students to different programmes of

study in the college.
Make regulations for sports, extra-curricular activities, and proper maintenance and
functioning of the playgrounds and hostels.
Recommend to the Governing Body proposals for institution of new programmes of
study.
Recommend to the Governing Body institution of scholarships, studentships,
fellowships, prizes and medals, and to frame regulations for the award of the same.
Advise the Governing Body on suggestions pertaining to academic affairs made by
it.
Perform such other functions as may be assigned by the Governing Body.
Board of Studies:
The Board of Studies is the basic constituent of the academic system of an autonomous
college. Its functions will include framing the syllabi for various courses, reviewing and
updating syllabi from time to time, introducing new courses of study,determining details of
continuous assessment, recommending panels of examiners under the semester system
etc.
The Board of Studies of a department in the college shall:
prepare syllabi for various courses keeping in view the objectives of the college,
interest of the stakeholders and national requirement for consideration and
approval of the Academic Council;
suggest methodologies for innovative teaching and evaluation techniques]
suggest panel of names to the Academic Council for appointment of examiners;
and coordinate research, teaching, extension and other academic activities in the
department/college.
Finance Committee:
The Finance Committee will advise the Governing Body on financial matters and shall
meet at least twice a year.

The college will, in addition, have other non statutory committees such as the Planning
and Evaluation Committee, Grievance Appeal Committee, Examination Committee,
Admission Committee, Library Committee, Student Welfare Committee, Extra-Curricular
Activities Committee and Academic Audit Committee.

The Concept of Accountability

Along with autonomy, another important element is accountability, which is the kingpin of
democratic University administration. It is not only regulatory and punitive in its content,
but has a positive and promotional goal. That is, adequate administrative performance as
per the objectives and structure of a University is to be ensured.
Autonomy and Accountability are really two sides of the same coin. Any complex task of a
continuing nature which requires the participation of different people at different places,
requires a management system which can determine and assign responsibilities, laying
down who will do what, where, when, etc. It must at the same time be ensured that there
is freedom to take the initiative without interference from outsides who are not
accountable to the management for the achievement of organizational objectives.
Generally the degree of interference from the higher authorities in the functioning of a
lower formation is determined partly by the nature of the task and partly also by the latter's
record of performance.

Accountability has both a broader and narrower connotation.

In a broad sense, it may refer to the returns to society for the investment made in
maintaining Universities. The returns are measured as costs/benefits or increase in
efficiency of manpower engaged in different vocations or professions. There are also the
overall benefits to society, which are diffused. In a narrow sense, it refers to answerability
to the superior authority for implementation and achievement. In short, accountability
demands carrying out administrative operation with economy, efficiency and effectiveness.
To mention only the routine functions, ignoring the inescapable socio-cultural and
economic responsibilities, it is self-evident that every College has to ensure that :
it will admit students as per a pre-determined schedule, only on the basis of
objective, transparent and credible criteria;
it will lay down and, from time to time, update syllabi and curricula, keeping in
view the general levels of competence of students at the entry point and the
conceptual comprehension, methodological skills and factual information which
they must acquire to obtain employment commensurate with their degrees;
class and course work proceeds according to a given time table;
appraisal of the levels of achievements of students vis--vis the prerequisites laid
down in the syllabi, etc. would be undertaken well in time through processes which
would demonstrably preclude favoritism and corruption :

 the grading awarded to examinees would be such as to command credibility

among monitoring and funding agencies, other institutions and employers;
an environment for learning would be created which would ensure that the general
body of students would become actively involved with the pursuit of knowledge, so
that there would be very little 'wastage and stagnation';
the composition of the staff and of the student body and the general environment
would discourage inbreeding the parochialism,
and ensure that personnel at all levels felt accountable for the performance of their
duties in a responsible position; and there is adherence to reasonable norms in the
matter of optimal utilization of staff, equipment and infrastructure, professional
encouragement, financial discipline and grievance redressal.
Financial autonomy and accountability
Since full public financing of higher education to manage growth and diversity within the
context of overall funds constraints is no longer possible, universities and colleges have to
search for alternate funding sources. The scheme for promoting internal generation
should be made more broad based and be re-designed so as to provide financial
incentives for overall performance of the institution against objectively defined parameters
that may be captured through the performance radars mechanism. The internal resources
generated by an institution under no circumstances should be adjusted with any other
grants and institutions should be allowed to use it exclusively for developmental purposes.
Financial accountability of a College is also important because in the public view, the
taxpayer has a privilege to demand proof of effective programme or performance of
excellence of the College product or its effect on society. It underlines effectiveness
of allfinancial expenditures on a College. At the same time, in the name of
accountability, performance shouldnot become the prisoner of non-decisions.

Conclusion
A good governance system always helps to create a stimulating ecosystem in the
development and performance of institutions. An enlightened governance system
stimulates a culture of innovation, encourages large scale faculty development and
improve productivity of its members.