NEP: Universities not to affiliate over 300 colleges, says Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal

Universities will t be able to provide affiliation to more than 300 colleges with new National Education Policy (NEP) granting more automy to colleges and phasing out affiliation system, Union minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said on Wednesday.

"I visited a university recently and when I asked vice chancellor how many colleges are affiliated to that university he said 800 degree colleges. I thought I heard him wrong. I asked him again and he said 800. It was a convocation ceremony. I was surprised. Can any VC remember names of principals of 800 degree colleges?" Union education minister asked.

He was dressing a virtual session on 'Education post COVID-19'.

"Can he or she keep a tab on quality and functions of such a huge number of colleges? That is why in NEP we are saying that in a phased manner we will work on this. One university will t affiliate more than 300 colleges and for that if we need to increase number of universities we will do that," Nishank said.

As per new policy approved by Union Cabinet last month, system of affiliation will be phased out over 15 years and a st-wise mechanism for granting gred automy to colleges, through a transparent system of gred accreditation, will be established.

Over a period of time, it is envisd that every college would develop into eir an automous degree-granting college, or a constituent college of a university.

"We have 45,000 degree colleges of which only 8,000 are automous. Based on ir quality in a phase manner we will improve ir gring and as y progress we will grant m a gred automy," he said.