Education Policy: The Exit Of Affiliation

We need to move away from the affiliating to the unitary university model, as London has also done. NEP has competition in mind. Competition implies entry, as well as exit. We will have exit of colleges (through mergers/consolidation) as has occurred in both London and the USA

Education is positively correlated with various socio-economic indicators of development. It leads to internalities and externalities and consequent gains. Even without that, education is desirable. The present educational edifice has been built up over decades. Deconstruction takes time. In this column, I will focus only on one aspect of National Educational Policy (NEP), 2020, the affiliation system. On this, NEP states, “The new regulatory system envisioned by this Policy will foster this overall culture of empowerment and autonomy to innovate, including by gradually phasing out the system of ‘affiliated colleges’ over a period of fifteen years through a system of graded autonomy, and to be carried out in a challenge mode. Each existing affiliating university will be responsible for mentoring its affiliated colleges so that they can develop their capabilities and achieve minimum benchmarks in academic and curricular matters; teaching and assessment; governance reforms; financial robustness; and administrative efficiency.” In 15 years, these affiliated colleges are expected to become autonomous and degree-granting. NEP states it strongly — “Large affiliating universities resulting in low standards of undergraduate education”.