* How will attaining autonomy prove to be an advantage for the college and its students?
Dr Frazer Mascarenhas, Principal of St Xavier’s College: We have applied for academic autonomy which will enable us to decide the syllabi and the exams. The present syllabi cater to 510 colleges of the university. But each college has a different calibre. St Xaviers is recognised as one of the best colleges in the country. It will help us to form our own courses and make it more relevant to what the industry needs. During my recent visit to some elite institutions in the UK, including Oxford and the London School of Economics, I interacted with some autonomous college authorities. Our staff members, too, have been regularly visiting institutions abroad. We would like to emulate parts of their system. We have based our ideas on some Indian autonomous institutions as well. We had applied earlier, but had to pull out because of some difficult statutes imposed. However, we applied again almost a year ago. We are among the last lot of Jesuit colleges in India who are yet to attain autonomy.
Dr Suhas Pednekar, Principal of Ramnarain Ruia College: We applied for autonomy two years ago. Autonomy will help us get more academic freedom and that will mean that we can set our own curricula and syllabi. We can change to continuous assessment rather than have students write just one exam at the end of the year. Autonomy will help to merge interdisciplinary courses. For example, science students will be able to take arts credits and vice versa. The introduction of autonomy is also a plus point because the college will have the freedom to explore tie-ups within and outside India.

* What are the changes that your college is likely to introduce once it becomes autonomous?
Dr Frazer Mascarenhas: Our main focus initially will be on upgrading our courses, making them interdisciplinary, introduce credit system, semesters etc with the help of our competent faculty members, university and industry inputs. Details have to be worked out. New courses will be introduced at a later stage. The college will completely evaluate third year exams so that the college does not have to go through the rigmarole of the exam procedures at the university. As the courses will be designed by our faculty members, they would be the best examiners. For instance, statistics in sociology (mathematical calculations component), was done away with by the university because most colleges found it too burdensome for students. However, as a former sociology professor, I know the importance of this subject and would like our students, whom I believe are capable of handling the subject, to study it.
Dr Suhas Pednekar: We can’t change the entire course in a year, but our focus will be on vocational courses which will help students at the professional level as well. The courses that are taught now are sometimes outdated, so we plan to give students elective subjects. Courses like biotechnology, nanotechnology and green chemistry are on the cards. We are also looking at introducing research components, to encourage both students and teachers to participate in research and keep themselves updated with the latest happenings.