Frustration is a global cancer. It has spared no country. In some countries, frustration exists because these countries are populated by 'have nots'. In other countries which are populated by 'haves'. Frustration is among them also because they do 'have' as far as India is concerned its education system is breeding more and more frustration among both students and teachers. And yet no one seems too clear about what can be done to make it more meaningful. Many reforms have been discussed length but have come to nothing for one reason or another. The authorities are now peddling the idea of autonomous colleges as a means of toning up teaching standards. They argue that by allowing certain colleges to introduce their own courses, hold seminars, and above all, to evolve their own method of assessing students, students will get a far better deal. Indeed, they make out that such colleges will have free hand in nearly every thing except granting degrees. In theory all this sounds, attractive enough. But there is little to show that the managements concerned are keen on such reforms. Even today, nothing prevents a college from inviting guest speakers on specialized subjects or holding courses in English for term vernacular students. But not a single one of those who are now clamoring for autonomy has bothered to do so. It is no secret that colleges which may be "Freed to an extent from university control are highest: In Mumbai, for example, there is big cultural gulf between city colleges and Jordon degree of autonomy, it will only heightened this disparity. The answer to the vexed problem of declining standards in higher education does not lie in encouraging the growth of model institutions, but in improving over all standards. This is of course easier said than done, since more and more young people are seeking degrees. The only solution, however, unpalatable it may sound, is drastically to reduce the number of those who are admitted to colleges. Even though there is political pressure on many state governments to build new colleges and to reserve more seats for backward clases, it will be sheer folly to expand such facilities recklessly without giving any thought to the quality of the number of entrants.