ABSTRACT
Autonomy, frequently used concept in higher education context, is being defined as the power of the higher education institution to govern itself without control from outside agency. Today, in our country, among other issues relating to university governance, limited institutional autonomy has also been identified as one of the major problems currently faced by the higher education system. Thus, moving towards institutional autonomy, as one of the key changes to the current system of higher education, is becoming one of the discussion agenda of the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020’s vision. In India, a private university is different from a public university in many aspects such as ownership, state control, management norms, and financing. Therefore, the extent of institutional autonomy enjoyed by a private university is different from that of the public university. This chapter reports the findings of empirical study to understand the extent of institutional autonomy enjoyed by the private universities by exploring the scope of autonomy as per provision in the act and its application in practice. It also highlights a comparison between the public and private universities in some aspects of autonomy, such as organisational, financial, staffing, and academic. Considering NEP 2020’s vision for self-governance and graded autonomy as the key reform measure for re-energising higher education system, this chapter therefore attempts to better understand how this reform move of the policy will have implications on private universities at the level of governance, regulation, and autonomy.
