Mumbai: Two more colleges gain autonomy

Mumbai University

Two more city colleges get the 'autonomous' tag. Gurunanak Khalsa College in Matunga and Patkar-Varde College in Goregaon have followed the trend of separating themselves from Mumbai University. With this, the total number of autonomous colleges in the city now stands at 13.

While the Mumbai University's national accreditation status is under question, more and more colleges are seen separating from the varsity and getting themselves autonomous authority. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has begun granting autonomy to well-performing colleges based on their NAAC accreditation. Both these colleges have an A+ ranking by NAAC and had thus applied for autonomy a few months ago.

Dr Kiran Magaonkar, principal of Khalsa College, said, "This is a great development. Our vision is to make a curriculum that is more industry oriented and thus beneficial to the students. The skills required in the professional sphere can now be included in our curriculum to enhance students' acceptability in the industry."

While Khalsa college has around 8,000 students, Patkar college caters to close to 7,500 students. "Other than developing a more intriguing curriculum which will help students in the job market, our focus is also on increasing research-work in the college, especially for undergraduate students," said Dr Sharmishtha Matkar, principal of Goregaon's Patkar-Varde College.

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