Mangaluru
The second Academic Council Meeting of Mangalore University (MU) approved autonomous status for three colleges. With this, MU will soon have three more autonomous colleges, pending government approval.
The newly approved colleges from UGC are Alva’s College, Moodbidri, Poornaprajna College, Udupi and Vivekananda College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Puttur. The already existing five autonomous colleges are, School of Social Work Roshini Nilaya, Mangaluru, Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College, Ujire, St Agnes College, Mangaluru, St Aloysius College, Mangaluru and St Ann’s College of Education, Mangaluru.
Jayaraj Amin, Vice-Chancellor (In-charge) of Mangalore University, said that after a long time, the University Grants Commission has granted autonomous status to three colleges. However, the procedures compared to earlier have been completely changed.
Earlier, colleges used to apply for autonomous colleges through the jurisdictional university. Now, they can apply directly online, after submitting the necessary documentation. Based on the documents provided, the UGC approves the autonomous status, and it may visit along with a committee, if it is not satisfied with the documentation, he explained. Though the UGC grants autonomous status, the same is not immediately implemented. Amin said that the state government asked the jurisdictional university to visit with an expert committee and get feedback. The Committee, comprising Senior Professors, visited all three colleges a few days ago, and gave positive feedback.
Amin said that feedback from the committee was supposed to be presented before the university syndicate, and later to the academic council. Since the syndicate meeting will be held later this month, we decided to chair it first at the academic council. Meanwhile, a copy of the committee feedback has been mailed to all syndicate members for any objections. He added that the colleges will be granted official autonomous status only when the state government approves it.
