CONSTITUTION AND CONTROL
I.-Relation to Provincial and Central Government 1. Nature of Concurrency. 2. Witnesses' opinion. 3. The need for Concurrency. 4. Limits of Controls. 5. Specific points. 6. Finance. 7. Coordination of facilities in special subjects. 8. Liaison between Universities and National Research Laboratories, Scientific Surveys etc. 9. Adoption of national policies. 10. Minimum standards of efficient administration.
II.-University Grants Commission 11. The University Grants Committee for the Central. Universities. 12. Need for changes. 13. It should be an expert body. 14. Responsibility of the Centre for advanced work. 15. The need for capital grants. 16. The Commission and Panels of experts. 17. Size and membership of the Commission. 18. Balance of interests. 19. Duties of the Commission. 20. Duties continued.
III.- Types of Universities 21. Different types. 22. Teaching Universities. 23. Federative type. 24. Teaching and affiliating Universities. 25. Affiliating Universities.
IV-Classification of Colleges 26. The existing situation. 27. Constituent Colleges. 28. Future of Constituent Colleges. 29. Government Colleges. 30. Existing Rights. 31. Service System. 32. Private Colleges. 33. Conditions for Affiliation. 34. College Governing Bodies. 35. Limit to number of colleges. 36. Size of Universities. 37. Stages of development.
V.-Structure of the Universities 38. Constitution. 39. Visitor. 40. Chancellor. 41. Vice- Chancellor 42. Duties of Vice-Chancellor. 43. Selection of the Vice- Chancellor.44. Tenure of office. 45. Other Authorities.
(i) Unitary 46. Senate (Court). 47. The Executive Council (Syndicate). 48 The Academic Council. 49. Faculties. 50. Boards of Studies.
(ii) Federative 51. Senate (Court). 52. The Executive Council (Syndicate). 53. The Academic Council. 54. Faculties. 55. Boards of Studies. 56. Principals' Committee.
(iii) Teaching and Affiliating Universities 57. Senate (Court). 58. The Executive Council (Syndicate). 59. The Academic Council. 60. Faculties. 61. Boards of Studies. 62. Grants Allocation Committee.
63. Other Committees. 64. The Finance Committee. 65. The Selection Committee or Committees.
VI.-66 Recommendations 403
404
CONSTITUTION AND CONTROL [CHAP. XIII
I.-Relation to Provincial and Central Government 1. Nature of Concurrency-In a large country like India, good. government is only possible if wide powers are conferred by the con- stitution upon the Provincial Governments. It is essential that in many matters, including public education, the initiative should rest, with the Provinces or States and Unions; so should the administration, and so in many fields of activity should the final responsibility. But in some subjects, apart from those which the entre retains in its own hands, there is felt to be the need, without impairing local initiative, for a coordinating power to be retained by the Centre (a) to, ensure that all Provinces, States and Unions act within certain limits, or observe certain minimum standards, (b) to ensure that, where different units wish to develop different special activities, a coherent over-all national policy emerges, without glaring examples of unncessary duplication on the one band or unfilled gaps on the other, and (c) to enable joint planning by Provinces, States and Unions. where this is necessary. Subjects falling into this category are placed on the concurrent list.
2. Witnesses' Opinion-Nearly all our witnesses have expressed their opinion as to the proper category for university education, Central, Concurrent or Provincial. A minority, but a minority including some important witnesses, think it should be Central. A very large majority, both of university spokesmen and of public men and women think it should be Concurrent. Practically the only witnesses who thought it should be Provincial were the representatives of Provincial Governments in one or two Provinces. The significant thing was that even among the representatives of Provincial Governments a substantial majority preferred Concurrency.
3. The Need for Concurrency-We may say at once that we agree with the majority in thinking that the All-India aspects of university education, the repercussions and interchanges necessary and desirable between universities and the need for a national guarantee of minimum standards of efficiency, make it impossible for university education to remain a purely Provincial subject. No doubt the simplest way of securing these objects would be to make it a Central subject. But we see two serious objections to this, which on balance seem to outweigh the advantages. First, it would tend to produce a stereotyped uniformity which we by no. means desire. On the contrary, we wish to see local initiative and local interest in the creation and development of universities far more general and more enterprising than it has hitherto shown itself. Secondly, it would create an awkward, hiatus at a critical
405
CHAP. XIII.] CONSTITUTION AND CONTROL
stage in the educational system if the Centre became solely responsible for university education while basic and secondary education were a Provincial responsibility. We consider that the necessary safeguards can be achieved by Concurrency, and we now proceed to state what these safeguards are and the ways in which they can be maintained.
4. Limits of Controls-We are not arguing that Central control should be superimposed on or substituted for, the existing measure of Provincial control of universities. We have in the preceding chapters indicated many grievous shortcomings in our universities as they exist today and many reforms that must be made. But, we do not believe that more control from outside is the way to achieve reform. On the contrary a great many of the present evils arise from the fact that most of our universities have no real autonomy whatever, and have proved incapable of resisting pressure from outside. Universities should be sensitive to enlightened public opinion ; they should never let themselves be bullied or bribed into, actions that they know to be educationally unsound or worse still,, motivated by nepotism, faction and corruption. The right public: policy is to give a university. the best possible constitution, securing among other things of the inclusion, of wisely chosen external members of its governing body and then to leave it free from interference.
5. The specific points on which the Central Government must concern itself with universities are ;
6. A. Finance-As we have repeatedly shown in earlier chapters our universites are grossly under-financed for the tasks they are attempting. More buildings, more staff, better-paid staff, more scholarships, more facilities for research, more books, more equip- ment-all these are clamant needs. We see no possibility of the Provinces providing the whole of the necessary expenditure, burdened as they will be with the no less acute needs of extending basic, secondary and technical schools. Generous grants from the Centre must be forthcoming; and these grants the Centre will not and should not allocate blindly or mechanically. A Central University Grants Commission working through the Ministry of Education, must allocate the sums made available by the Central Government. in accordance with the special needs and merits of each university.
7. B. Go-ordination of Facilities in Special Subjects-Research and advanced teaching in many subjects have become such expensive matters that not all universities can specialise in all fields,
406
CONSTITUTION AND CONTROL [CHAP. XIII.
Aero engineering is one example, naval architecture another. India must have one or two universities where these subjects are studied. But all universities cannot undertake all of them. Even in a uni- versal subject like Physics, though some research must be carried on in the Physics Department of each university, Nuclear Physics research is now so costly that in Great Britain, for example, only six of the seventeen universities are given grants for this purpose. A similar position is found in the United States. Again, new subjects come into vogue (sometimes a transient vogue) and every university is tempted to embark on them, though at the outset the whole national demand for that subject could be met by a single university. The only solution is to give to the University Grants Commission the task of co- ordination, with the sanction of giving or withholding grants.
8. C. Liaison Between Universities and National Research Laboratories, Scientific Surveys, etc.-The Scientific Surveys and also the State Laboratories which the Central Government has set up or plans to set up will need to keep in touch with the universities. Ex change of information between these institutions and the correspond ing departments in universities will be required in order to prevent wasteful duplication of effort ; and if the experience of Great Britain repeats itself in India the institutions will seek to enlist the help of particular research workers or research teams in universities, whom they know to be working on relevant topics, for the solution of particular problems. There must also be two-way recruitment between the institutions and the universities (promising researchers from universities being taken on by the institutions and the institutions serving as one field of good candidates for university chairs and readerships). Recognition of the institutions by all universities as "approved" places of study for higher degrees and inter-availability of pension rights (provident funds) between universities and the institutions will also necessitate careful planning on an All-India basis. Where the institutions are under the Ministry of Education, the University Grants Commission can undertake these negotiations and can secure co-operation by means of grants. Some of the institutions, especially those dealing with Applied Science, are not under the Ministry of Education, but under other Ministries; and if these other Ministries prefer to foster their contacts with universities by means of special grants from their own budgets, there is no objection. But we think it probable that sooner or later these other Ministries will see that advantage of using the University Grants Commission, at any rate, as their recommending agent for the allocation of such grants. In Great Britain, for example, the Ministry
407
CHAP. XIII.] CONSTITUTION AND CONTROL
of Agriculture have recently handed over to the University Grants Committee the allocation of grants to university departments of agriculture.
9. D. Adoption of National Policies-There are issues in India today in which there is grave and obvious danger of disunion through the provinces acting independently both of each other and of the Centre. Some of these issues vitally affect universities, e.g. communal quotas, and the use of national or regional languages. We feel very strongly that the universities, as the main source from which India is bound to draw not only most of its leaders but all its high-grade national officials, must throw their weight on to the side of national unity (which need not mean uniformity). With the central guidance of policy that the University Grants Commission can give them, we are confident that they will prove a unifying force in the nation. But unfortunately there is clear evidence that in some universities local control has already led to actions tending to disunion. We have elsewhere stated our views on the medium of instruction. Here it suffices to point out that uncoordinated action by universities, either in exclusive use of a regional language or in premature adoption of the national language, will inevitably cause educational retardation and stimulate division between Province and Province.
10. E. Minimum Standards of Efficient Administration-There are universities in India today, whose administration is unsatisfactory. Even in purely academic matters such as the appointment of examiners and the awarding of degrees their procedures and Standards are suspect. The existence of such a state of things is immeasurably damaging to our national prestige. It is clear that under existing conditions it has not been possible to effect much improvement. Later on in this chapter we outline the kind of constitution for a university which affords scope for achieving and maintaining the necessary improvements. In order to secure that all university institutions include, within broad limits, these essential safeguards we recommend that the Governor-General (President) should again, become the Visitor of all universities, as he was till 1937, and that the ratification of university Acts should rest with him.
II.-The University Grants Commission 11. The University Grants Committee for the `Central' Universi- ties-The University Grants Committee was formed in 1945 to deal solely with the three "Central" Universities, Aligarh, Banaras and Delhi, and consisted of four members. In 1946 and again in 1947 its membership was increased and it was empowered to deal with all universities. Neither the Chairman nor the members are full-time. The members include such prominent people as the Premier of a
408
CONSTITUTION AND CONTROL [CHAP. XIII]
Province and the Vice-Chancellors of more than one university, people who may be able to attend an occasional meeting of the Committee but cannot possibly spare the time to familiarize themselves with all the universities requesting their assistance. We say this in no spirit of criticism. The Committee is still a very new body and there ha- been a good deal of doubt as to the way in which it should exercise its powers and duties. In particular, it has had no funds placed at its disposal by the Government. It has only been. able to make recommendations to the Education Ministry which in turn transmits the ease to the Finance Ministry; and in these circumstances the Finance Ministry has, inevitably, required to judge for itself each recommendation for a grant made by the Committee In spite of these disabilities the work of the U.G.C. has been of considerable value.
12. Need for Changes-A Committee or Commission for allocating both recurrent and capital grants to universities from the Centre is so fundamental to our proposals for improving and developing our universities that if it were not in existence we whould have had to invent it. We therefore, welcome its existence even in its present tentative form. But to serve its full purpose, considerable changes. are necessary, in its powers and duties and also in its membership.
13. It Should be an Expert Body-The first and most essential change is that the Committee shall have power to allocate grants within total limits set by the Government, instead of merely re- commending their allocation to the Finance Ministry which may or may not agree. In a democratic country, the decision of how much public money can be spent on universities can be made, and ought to be made, only by the Government; it is a political decision and a part of their yearly budgetary proposals. But once that decision is made, the detailed allocation of the money must be left to an expert body, not merely non-political, but as rigidly protected form political or personal lobbying and pressure as the constitution of the country can make them. Other--wise, if the last word on whether this or that new department or new research laboratory shall be located at X University or Y University rests with any Minister, the way is open for `pressure-groups' to exert political influence on what should be a purely educational question. The experience of other countries has proved the need for this separation, between the political body which determines policy and sets financial limits for its execution, and the expert body which alone has the necessary knowledge of detail to carry out the policy wisely, fairly and economically. It goes without saying that the audited accounts of any university receiving money from the University Grants Committee (Commission) must be subject to scrutiny by the Finance Ministry.
409
CHAP. XIII.] CONSTITUTION AND CONTROL
14. Responsibility of Centre for Advanced Work-It is certain that no university responsible for teaching and research in India today can be made even passably efficient without the help of recurrent grants from the Centre in addition to their existing resources. We wish therefore, to make it perfectly clear that, while the Government must decide each year what sum to include for university grants in its budget, the sum once granted cannot be reduced in subsequent years without disastrous consequences. Instead of giving a large sum in a good year and cutting it down in a bad year, it would be well for the Government to fix the sum at a figure that they feel confident of being able not merely to maintain but to increase by some small percentage annually for, say, the next ten years. We do not forget that the Provinces (or States) are the principal paymasters of all the universities but three. It is reasonable that the Provinces should retain financial responsibility for courses for a first degree. It is in advanced teaching and research that the All-India aspects of university work become more prominent. We accordingly suggest as a short-term goal that the Government of India should make itself responsible for an over-all total amounting to 50% of the cost of post-graduate and research work. This does not mean that the Government of India should relieve these Provinces of half their present expenditure on such work; on the contrary it should be a condition of all grants that the Province shall not take advantage of them by reducing its own contribution. But at present advanced work is starved at almost every University, and our proposal is that within the next few years the amount spent on it in the Universities as a whole should be doubled.
15. The Need for Capital Grants-The need for capital grants for building and equipment, if universities are to expand or even to relieve the present dreadful overcrowding, is so obvious that we need not dwell on it. But whereas the essential thing about recurrent grants is that they shall in fact recur, it matters less if capital grants vary from year to year according to the state of national finances. We suggest that the sums put at the disposal of the University Grants Commission for recurrent and capital grants respectively should be kept separate in the budget. We assume that the Commission will be invited to state their case, for both types of grant, when the annual estimates are made. Capital grants will of course be earmarked by the Commission for particular projects. Recurrent grants, even if in the first place, the Commission indicates the specific needs which should be met by their assistance, should subsequently be merged in the university's general income, with the sole stipulation that the money must be spent upon advanced teaching and research and not to meet the costs of the first degree.