Shrinidhi Karje/ENS
 
Mangalore, Apr 26: Institutions that became autonomous after year-long efforts have realised, albeit lately, that the coveted honour does not guarantee sovereign powers.

Autonomous institutions in the City, vying among themselves to attract students, had announced a variety of new courses through its brochures. An autonomous college, which went ahead with advertisements on their new course, has been rapped on the knuckles by Mangalore University.

Brochures and prospectuses distributed to students by St Aloysius College had highlighted the introduction of six new postgraduation courses including MS in Communications, MSc in Holistic and Psychological Counselling, MA in Applied Economics, MA in English Literature and Communication, M Com(Applied Finance and Accounting) and MSc in Bio Chemistry from next academic year.

However, Mangalore University is yet to approve the new courses submitted by the college. Mangalore University Vice-Chancellor Prof K M Kaveriappa told this website’s newspaper: “Though a few autonomous colleges did seek permission to start new PG courses, we have not permitted any autonomous college to start new programmes. The matter should be discussed in the Board of Studies (BoS) and Syndicate meetings before granting permission.”

Reacting to newspaper advertisements on new courses, the Vice-Chancellor said that action had been initiated and a memo was sent to St Aloysius College seeking explanation within a week.

According to sources, a memo seeking explanation has already been dispatched to the college on April 23. “We will begin these courses only after obtaining approval from the University,” St Aloysius College Principal Fr Swebert D’Silva said.

“We are sure of securing permission from the University to start new courses,” he added. The college has gone ahead with the preparations and has already appointed lectures for the new PG courses.

“We have even appointed subject expert lectures from Chennai,” D’Silva added.