The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley while presenting the General Budget 2017-18 in Parliament today said that in higher education, the Government will undertake reforms in the UGC. Good quality institutions would be enabled to have greater administrative and academic autonomy. In his Budget Speech, the Finance Minister said that the colleges will be identified based on accreditation and ranking, and given autonomous status. A revised framework will be put in place for outcome based accreditation and credit based programmes.  

Administrative and Academic Autonomy expanded for accredited colleges, linking autonomous status to accreditation, ranking and outcome based frameworks. Reforms permit high quality institutions to obtain greater administrative and academic autonomy based on accreditation and ranking; a revised framework will implement outcome based accreditation and promote credit based programmes, linking autonomous status to measurable accreditation outcomes.