LICs have been the watchdog or backbone of the University of Mumbai’s affiliation process as the quality of the colleges and the education they offer, entirely depend upon the recommendations or report of the LIC. While in the past, the University had limited number of colleges, in recent times the sudden spurt in colleges has resulted in the quality of education being compromised, as the University does not have a handy apparatus to check on whether the colleges are adhering to the norms set by it and other authorities, this is where the importance of LIC becomes more than evident.
Explaining the composition of the LIC, a University official said, “LIC consists of a convener who may be a member of the Academic Council or principal of a college, preferably from the same faculty for which affiliation is sought. There may be two or three members from the senate/senior teachers from colleges belonging to the faculty for which affiliation is sought. No person shall be appointed on the LIC for more than four colleges.”
The role of the LIC is to visit colleges that have applied for renewal of affiliation or affiliation and check parameters like academics, infrastructure, administration, appointments of principals, teachers, staff among other things.
Elaborating on the colleges that require visits from LIC every year the official said, “Out of the 683 colleges affiliated to MU, around 225 colleges have permanent affiliation. The remaining colleges have to apply for renewal of the affiliation every year.”
Throwing light on where the problem starts, the official said, “The reason why colleges do not get permanent affiliation is that they do not fulfill various criteria set out by the University. The same should be the case for temporary affiliation or renewal of affiliation, however, colleges manipulate LIC members and get favourable reports that are usually misleading and far from fact.”
The new guidelines aim to curb the malpractice. “LIC members will be wary that their report is in the public domain and could come under criticism if the information does not corroborate with ground realities. This will ensure that both the college and LIC members don’t take the visit lightly,” said Dr Madhu Nair, convener.