Assessing Indian autonomous institutions using AHP approach — A case study

In India, only around 250 institutions are autonomous while 98.9% are affiliated with universities. The Government of India realizing the importance of autonomy for educational institutions is encouraging educational institutions to be autonomous, as the only safe and better way to improve the quality of undergraduate education is to delink most of the institutions from the affiliating structure. Different institutions including private are opting to be autonomous. Granting autonomy is one major issue under Indian context and so also monitoring such institutions. If this assessment is not administered appropriately, it could lead to disasters in the field of education. Hence this paper proposes a rationalized method for monitoring the grant and review of autonomous institutions using the modified method of Analytical Hierarchy Process based on criteria like Academic program outcomes, Faculty qualifications & achievements, Adequacy of infrastructure, Students performance and results, Quality and responsiveness of institution Management etc.