thiruvananthapuram the fresh guidelines announced by the union government for providing financial assistance to higher education institutions has turned out to be dumpster fire for keralaas per the new guidelines none of the government institutions in the state would be eligible for any major funding from rashtriya ucchatar shiksha abhiyan rusa the mission mode project under the union ministry of human resources for distribution of funds for quality enhancement of higher education institutions in the countrysince the union government holds autonomy as the only mantra to improve the quality of higher education institutions the state government would have to either set aside its political anathema against autonomy or dare to forgo the states due share of fund from the centre the major scheme in the revised guideline is an assistance up to rs 55 crore to autonomous institutions with naac accreditation and minimum 351 gcpa cumulative grade point average for upgrading them into universities maximum of three autonomous colleges from a state would be eligible to apply for the assistance under this scheme of the 19 arts and science colleges to whom the former udf government had bestowed autonomy maharajas is the only college in government sector the college that witnessed prolonged protests against autonomy however doesnt has the cgpa required to apply for the university status though rajagiri college of social science is the only autonomous college that meet the prerequisite for applying for university status the state government is unlikely to give green signal for the sameby projecting autonomy as a panacea for all the quality issues in higher education institutions in the country the union government is trying to bypass all democratic values and systems rusa has diminished the role of ugc and it is just an arm of the ministry of human resource development the revised guidelines are not at all favourable to the conditions in kerala the union government is trying to establish a system of selective funding to a few a good number of institutions would parish in the process many state governments meekly follow the guidelines for the funding purpose said state higher education council vice chairman rajan gurukkalaccording to the new guidelines the state higher education councils should have only academicians in the posts of chairman and vice chairman currently state education minister is the chairman of the council if the composition of the council is not according to rusa directives such state higher education councils will not be eligible for any funding from rusa higher education secretary would continue to be the state project director while the guidelines warns strongly against the appointment of bureaucrats in the top echelons of higher education institutionsaccording to sources in the background of the new guidelines the higher education department is actively considering an option to grant autonomy to heritage colleges university college thiruvananthapuram brennan college thalasery and victoria college palakad so as to prepare them to be eligible for huge financial assistance in their march towards university status the left parties and sfi