The lack of academic autonomy within educational institutions has affected motivation among faculty members and scope for innovation, former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan said on Friday.

Kasturirangan, who was also the chairman of the panel which drafted the National Education Policy-2020 (NEP), made the remarks at the Delhi University's faculty induction programme.

"In the current (education) system there is a lack of teacher autonomy all around which has led to severe lack of faculty motivation and scope for innovation," he said "The lack of academic autonomy within institutions must be corrected. For which ensuring institutional autonomy at the systemic level is the first critical reform to be initiated," he said while speaking on the topic 'NEP 2020: Pedagogical Imperatives for Higher Education'. The system of affiliated colleges, which are required to follow a centralised syllabus, curriculum, pedagogy and textbooks, makes it very difficult to provide teachers with such autonomy, said Kasturirangan, who also heads the steering committee for the National Curriculum Framework (NCF).

He suggested that institutions must ensure that their faculty members and institutional leaders innovate and explore in their teaching, research and service, and they have the individual autonomy that allows them to do these.

"True autonomy means the freedom to innovate, compete, cooperate, govern locally, optimise resources, break silos, and excel. The NEP advocates this as one of the significant transformation in higher education," Kasturirangan noted.

The faculty induction programme was presided by Delhi University Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh who congratulated the new joinees and advised them to experiment with teaching methodologies for a better learning experience.

Singh said Delhi University this year has made over 3,500 new appointments of teachers, claiming that this is the highest in any central university in the given period. Of the total 5,200 vacancies, 1,700 positions are still vacant, he added.

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