Embracing Autonomy: Are Students of Autonomous Colleges Satisfied?

Abstract

In higher education, autonomy is commonly seen as a way to improve academic quality and stakeholder satisfaction, especially student satisfaction. The current study looks at students' satisfaction levels in Odisha's autonomous colleges. Data were gathered from 400 students chosen by proportionate stratified random sampling from 14 autonomous colleges using a descriptive survey design. Data was gathered using a 40-item, self-developed Students' Satisfaction Scale. With a Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of 0.979, the instrument showed excellent reliability. To interpret the data, percentage analysis was used. According to the results, students are moderately to highly satisfied with faculty members in terms of their ability to teach effectively, their readiness, their communication skills, and their approachability. However, there are conflicting results regarding how satisfied students are with the facilities and support provided by the institution. Placement services, research opportunities, co-curricular activities, laboratory infrastructure, and internet facilities are reported to cause significant dissatisfaction, despite the positive perceptions of academic resources, practical exposure, seminars, and policy transparency. The study comes to the conclusion that, despite autonomy's beneficial effects on academic processes, its full potential is still underutilised because of infrastructure and support-related constraints. To increase student satisfaction in autonomous colleges, institutional facilities and career-oriented support services must be strengthened.