NEW DELHI: Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday indicated that more institutions would be given autonomy as being given to Indian Institutes of Management (IIM).
Javadekar said the government is working on creating a “benchmark standards”’ and those institutions who are able to meet it would be given similar autonomy as is being given to IIMs.
“We have guaranteed autonomy to IIMs. Other institutes which do well would get similar status. And this is just a beginning. Our government is against micromanagement and excess control and believes in giving more autonomy to academic institutions. And this freedom would ensure these institutions to grow. Modi government is the most democratic form of government…,” Javadekar told a press conference.
“This (IIMs getting autonomy) is a message to other institutions that of they too can maintain quality and standards they too can get autonomy like given to IIMs,” the minister pointed out.
He said that IIMs after getting autonomy are free to set up their institutions on foreign land.
“For this a demand has to come from the country where IIMs want to set up their institution. The final call would be taken based on the laws of the land prevailing in both the countries. We would be happy if the IIMs do that,” said the minister.
He said, with IIMs being declared as Institutions of National Importance, students will start getting degrees instead of diplomas as soon as IIM bill is passed by the Parliament.
The Union cabinet on Tuesday cleared the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) Bill, 2017 that would allow the premier management institute to offer degrees to students instead of diploma certificates besides granting “complete autonomy” to these elite B-schools.
A senior HRD Ministry official later said that degrees would be given by IIMs only from the next academic year. He said that the Centre would continue to fund the new IIMs and the IIM’s autonomy has nothing to do with it.