Autonomy and Accountability of Higher Education Institutions of India: Tracing the roots in History of Higher Education in Independent India

The modern system of higher education in India and its governance has evolved through a long historical process. Taxila, Nalanda, Vikramshila and Vallabi were the most important seats of higher learning in India. The establishment of three public universities in 1857 in presidencies of Chennai, Kolkata and Bombay marked the evolution of governance of higher education. In pre-independence India, higher education used to be governed by the British government and were never treated as mature autonomous institutions. But after independence, it was realized that university autonomy along with the institutional accountability is the prerequisite for intellectual progress and institutional development. Thus, post-independence many commissions and committees were established in higher education domain specifically from time to time to consider the demand for autonomy