The Central government had announced on March 20 that 60 universities and colleges are now autonomous. The UGC would grant different levels to these higher education institutions.
Five prominent central universities namely Hyderabad Central University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Aligarh Muslim University, Banaras Hindu University, and The English and Foreign Languages University.
The list also contains 24 state universities, 21 deemed to be universities and eight colleges. Human resource development minister, Prakash Javadekar, called it a ‘historic decision’.
But teachers and students are still not sure whether they have a say in policy making, insists Balveer Arora, a former political science professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Arora participated in the student protests ‘for space and voice’ that engulfed Paris that summer in 1968.
He returned to join the JNU in 1973 after the completion of completion of his studies at the French university. “These influences matter and shape worldviews,” he said.