Government representatives nominated to governing bodies of autonomous colleges will no longer be silent spectators. Apart from monitoring these colleges' functioning and submitting reports to the government, they will also be responsible for reporting any cases of violations in rules and regulations. In a first, the state's higher and technical education department issued a circular on Monday, specifying duties and responsibilities of government representatives nominated to governing bodies of autonomous colleges. The document lists out ten responsibilities covering various aspects to ensure autonomous colleges' functioning is consistently monitored. Autonomous colleges refer to those that exercise complete independence in their day-to-day functioning and academics, including the curriculum and overall administration. There are over 150 autonomous colleges across Maharashtra, and more than 70 under Mumbai University’s jurisdiction alone. A senior official from the education department, said, "Even though most autonomous colleges do have government representatives on board, their duties were not chalked out, leaving them to be mere spectators. With the number of autonomous colleges in Maharashtra increasing, it was becoming imperative to have a monitoring system without hindering their autonomy. This system for a carefully-designed role for government representatives is expected to ensure that autonomous colleges do not function completely unsupervised." As per a circular, apart from being present at all meetings, these members also have to ensure the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is effectively implemented in all these colleges. To maintain the quality of education, the nominated members will have to participate policy decisions and ensure that various government directives in this regard are followed by the college. The members are expected to monitor the respective autonomous colleges on various aspects and submit reports to the government periodically. "In case of any decision where a regulation by a state or affiliating university is violated, the nominated member is expected to report it to the government," the circular stated. The nominated members will also play a role of mediators between government and autonomous colleges by ensuring solution-oriented discussions.
