KSHEC’s petition for council flayed

Thiruvananthapuram: The new recommendation forwarded by the Kerala State Higher Education Council member secretary to the state government on the formation of the governing council for the proposed autonomous colleges has kicked up a row. 

It is alleged  that  the suggestion to  increase  the number of members of the governing council from eight to 12 was to give the managements an upper hand.

KSHEC member secretary P. Anver told Deccan Chronicle that he had only suggested that the government should stick to the University Grants Commission guidelines on autonomous colleges while constituting the governing council. This was the recommendation of the N.R. Madhava Menon committee appointed by KSHEC to study the establishment of the higher education council also.

The KSHEC and the government’s role on autonomous colleges was restricted to recommending such a status to colleges. It was for the UGC to grant autonomy to these colleges, Anvar said.

Sources said that as per the earlier decision, of the eight members, one each would be the representative of the UGC, KSHEC and the university. Of the rest, one will be the principal of the college, one representative of the management and three representatives of teachers.

Sources said that the present decision was to increase the members of the governing council by including four representatives of the managements.

Moreover, the member secretary has also recommended a change in the procedure for nominating the representative of the university to the governing council.

As per the earlier decision, the nomination was the  prerogative of the Vice-Chancellor. However, as per the new decision, the syndicate would have the powers to nominate university representative to the governing council, sources said.