Calcutta, Dec. 14: The West Bengal University of Technology, which controls the state’s 100-odd private engineering colleges, has decided to grant more autonomy to “the deserving”.

The freedom could mean the right to frame syllabi, control funds and follow independent administrative policies.

Under the existing system, the Calcutta-based university exercises complete control on the colleges’ academic affairs. The institutes also have no say in determining admission procedures and examination systems or framing syllabi.

“The academic growth of colleges which have the right infrastructure and faculty strength is vital and they should be given more autonomy in academic, financial as well as administrative affairs,” vice-chancellor Sabyasachi Sengupta told The Telegraph.

The university’s general council — its highest policy-making body — recently dis- cussed in detail the possible freedom of its affiliates to chart their own future.

“Some of the private colleges are run by groups with the potential to invest a lot of money if they are given a chance to expand. These institutions should be allowed to grow. They must have the freedom so they can invest in the right direction,” said a member of the council.

However, before the university makes the final move to unfetter some of the colleges, it wants to ensure their accountability.

Besides the university, an independent body is being mulled to monitor the colleges’ performance before and after they are accorded autonomy. The colleges will have to prove their students’ performance and their own achievements in undertaking and completing projects within deadlines.

The council has decided to propose to the state government the setting up of a board of accreditation, which will assess the colleges at regular intervals and grant accreditation on the basis of their scores.

The board will work independently on the lines of the National Board of Accreditation, which ranks state-aided as well as private engineering colleges and universities. “It will be independent of the state government as well as the WBUT (university of technology). The granting of the autonomous status to private colleges will largely depend on the board’s assessment,” said a source in the university.

The university wants to ensure the college principals and directors enjoy the financial independence to conceive and implement projects along with the owners of the institutes.

“The rules are going to be framed in such a way so the owners do not hold absolute financial powers. Principals and even the departmental heads will enjoy certain financial powers in the same way as they would be enjoying academic powers,” said the source.

College principals hailed the move as one that could help them make students more job-worthy. “We need the freedom, especially in running undergraduate courses so that we can train students according to the need of the day,” said Dipak Chatterjee of the Institute of Engineering and Management.

After the economic slow-down, Chatterjee said, “the IT course has become very unpopular but we can’t tweak the syllabus and introduce aspects to make it relevant in today’s market”.