Odisha HRD

Which universities can be funded by UGC? How does a university get a “funded by UGC” tag?

The rules come from the document at http://www.ugc.ac.in/policy/rules_1975_1.html which is reachable via the page http://www.ugc.ac.in/policy/rules_uni_1975.html which is reachable via the page on UGC regulations at http://www.ugc.ac.in/policy/regulation.html. We reproduce the content of the first document below.

UGC (Fitness of Certain Universities for Grants)Rules, 1975

To be Published in the Gazette of India
Part II, Section 3, Sub-Section (i)

No. F.92/74U.2.
Government of India
Ministry of Education & Social Welfare
(Department of Education)

New Delhi, the 9th Sep., 1974.

NOTIFICATION

In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 25 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 (3 of 1956) read with Section 12A Now read as 12B of that Act, the Central Government hereby makes the following rules, namely:-

1. Short title, application and commencement:

   1. These rules may be called the University Grants Commission (Fitness of Certain Universities for Grants) Rules, 1974.

   2. They shall apply to every university established after the commencement of the University Grants Commission (Amendment) Act, 1972 (33 of 1972), other than,

      1. an agricultural university,

      2. a university established against the advice of the Commission for imparting, exclusively, technological or medical education; and

      3. an institution recognised by the Commission, under the clause (f) of Section 2 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 (3 of 1956), on or after the 17th day of June 1972, the date on which the University Grants Commission (Amendment) Act, 1972 (33 of 1972) came into force.

   3. They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. Fitness for Grant � �No University to which these rules apply shall be declared to be fit to receive grants from the Central Government the University Grants Commission or any other Organisation receiving any funds from the Central Government unless the Commission is satisfied that:

   1. the University is a University established or incorporated by or under a Central Act, or

   2. in the case of any other University, the establishment of the University is justified on one or more of the following grounds, namely:-

      1. inadequacy of the facilities for higher education and research in the area in which the University is situated and the inability of the existing University or Universities of the state concerned to provide for such facilities either in its or their existing faculties or schools or by the establishment of postgraduate centres or campuses.

      2. the University has or shall have some special features or new, programme and activities which will augment the existing academic resources in the country.

      3. the University has or shall have programmes for the upliftment of backward areas or removal of regional imbalances.

   3. the law under which the University is established contains a provision for the establishment of a Planning Board or Committee consisting of eminent educationists to indicate the lines on which the University shall develop.

   4. in the law under which the University established, due weight hasbeen given to the recommendations made by:-

      1. the Education Commission (196466) constituted by a resolution of the Government of India;

      2. the Committee on the Governance of Universities appointed by the Commission; and

      3. the Committees of Panels appointed by the Commission during the last ten years:

   5. the University is not merely an affiliating University but a multifaculty University having adequate facilities, for teaching and research in a number of subjects.

   6. the university has powers to provide instruction through correspondence courses and to declare a college, department, centre or campus as an autonomous college, department, centreor campus, respectively,

   7. every teaching department, centre, discipline in the University has a provision for a minimum staff of one Professor, two Raiders and an adequate number of lecturers alongwith the necessary supporting staff,

   8. adequate machinery for the health residence and welfare for the students has either been provided in, or resources are being made available for the purpose to the University;

   9. the university has been provided with adequate facilities in respect of building, equipment, books, library, hostel and staff quarters, excluding colleges library or institutions affiliated or admitted to its privileges,

   10. whose aggregate value is not less than Rs 2 crores alongwith the developed land or the State Government is prepared to give an assurance to the Commission that a minimum amount of Rs 2 crores shall be made available to the University during the initial period of five years for the provision of the above mentioned facilities in addition to the developed land.

Sd/-
(I.D.N. Sahi)
Secretary to the Government of India

The Manager,
Government of India Press,
Ring Road, New Delhi.

Copy forwarded for information to:-

1. The Secretary, UGC, New Delhi.

2. The Comptroller & Auditor General of India, New Delhi.

3. The Accountant General, Central Revenues, New Delhi.

4. All State Governments and Administrations.

5. All Ministries of the Government of India.

6. All the Universities in India.

7. All the coordination Sections of various Divisions in the Ministry of Education and Social Welfare.

Sd/-
(M.N. Sinha)
Under Secretary

The following comes from http://www.ugc.ac.in/policy/rules_1978.html.

UGC (Fitness of Technological Universities for Grants) Rules, 1978

To be Published in the Gazette of India
Part II, Section 3, Sub-Section (i)

Government of India
Ministry of Education & Social Welfare
(Department of Education)

New Delhi, the 31st May, 1978

NOTIFICATION

G.S.R_____________ In exercise of the power conferred by Section 25, read with Section 12A Now read as 12B of the University Grants Commission 1956 (3 of 1956), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules, namely-

1. Short title, application and commencement:-

   1. These rules may be called the University Grants Commission (Fitness of Technological Universities for Grants) Rules, 1978.

   2. They shall apply to every Technological University established on or after the 17th day of June, 1972 the date on which the University Grants Commission (Amendment) Act, 1972 (33 of 1972) came into force.

   3. They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. Definitions:In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires-

   1. ��Industry� means any business, trade undertaking manufacture or calling employers and includes any calling, service, employment,handicraft, or industrial occupation or a vocation of workmen:

   2. �Technological University� means a university which provides for instruction and research in any branch or branches of engineering and technology, and for the advancement of learning and dissemination of knowledge in such branch or branches.

3. Fitness for Grant:No Technological University to which these rules apply be declared to be fit to receive grant from the Central Government, the Commission or any other organisation receiving any funds from the Central Government unless the Commission is satisfied in respect of the following matters, namely-

   1. there is a felt need to set up such a university and there is an evidence that the existing universities in a state cannot effectively meet the requirements of development of Engineering and Technological education through its colleges either directly maintained by or affiliated to it;

   2. it has adequate facilities for postgraduate teaching and research and has facilities for adequate support of science departments of its own;

   3. it provides adequate link with the industry for its courses and is in a position to provide for high level consultancy to the industry;

   4. it provides courses of extension and devotes attention for regional development;

   5. the State Government ensures the provision of adequate basic facilities in respect of scientific staff, supporting staff, buildings, equipment, library, hostels, staff quarters, playgrounds and the like as may be determined in consultation with the All India Council for Technical Education;

   6. in the law under which such university is established, due weightage has been given to the recommendations made by-

      1. the Education Commission (196466) constituted by a Resolution of the Government of India,

      2. the Committee on the Governance of Universities appointed by the Commission.

Sd/-
(S.N. Pandita)
Joint Secretary to the Govt. of India

See also:

1. UGC (Fitness of Agricultural Universities for Grants) Rules, 1975.

2. UGC (Fitness of Open Universities for Grants) Rules, 1988.

October 15th, 2007

How does a deemed university differ from a university?

This is addressed with some pointers in this blog. A list of deemed universities as of 22nd May 2006 is here. The 79 pages UGC act document is here.

1 comment October 15th, 2007

UGC Predoctoral and Postdoctoral fellowships in Sciences

The details are extracted from the following documents

* D.S. Kothari Post-Doctoral Fellowships (18-22 thousands/month)
* Research Fellowship in Sciences for Meritorious Students (8 thousands/month)

Continue Reading 188 comments October 15th, 2007

UGC Chairman’s article in Hindustan Times

Following is from http://www.hindustantimes.com/.

Higher education in India has witnessed manifold changes since Independence. The number of universities have gone up from 20 to 378, colleges from 500 to 18,064 and teachers from 15,000 to nearly 4.80 lakh. Consequently, enrolment has increased from a mere 1 lakh in 1950 to over 112 lakh in 2006, and the gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education has risen from an abysmal 1 per cent to 10 per cent.

Besides these numeric expansions, there has been significant diversification, with a marked shift in courses from the conventional disciplines to inter-disciplinary in emergent areas. Further, it’s not just public institutions, but also the private-aided and unaided sector that has had an important role in this expansion.

These developments notwithstanding, higher education today is faced with a number of challenges. In the forefront is the issue of improving overall enrolment, along with equitable access and quality education. We now recognise that the current access at 10 per cent is too low when compared with the world average of 23 per cent and 40 to 60 per cent in case of the developed countries. Besides, there are regional and social group imbalances in access, which varies between 6 to 8 per cent for the SC, ST, OBC and Muslims. The most deprived are the poor, for whom access is no more than 2 per cent. The GER in rural areas, at 7.5 per cent, compares poorly with the urban areas, at 24 per cent. Besides, regional disparities are also noticeable, with as many as 350 districts in the country having GER lower than the national average and 29 districts having GER of less than 5 per cent.

Equally important is the problem of quality. Out of 14,080 colleges, only 6,000, and out of 224 state universities, only 167 are able to meet the minimum prescribed norms and standards for receiving UGC development grants. Further, NAAC  assessment of 3,492 colleges and 140 universities reveals that only 9 per cent of the colleges and 31 per cent of the universities are rated as A-grade and an overwhelming 68 per cent of them are rated as B-grade.

Besides, there are issues related to academic reforms. While quite a few institutions have been able to implement credit-based courses and a semester system with continuous internal assessment, others have continued with annual examinations, largely based on external written examination. Also, the affiliating university system is over-burdened as the number of colleges affiliated to each university has been on the rise.

Enhancing access with inclusion and excellence are the main challenges, which the Eleventh Plan approach recognised. It recognised that increase in access will have to come with focus on the regions and social groups that presently have lower GER. These also happen to be the regions with lower quality educational institutions.

The strategy of the Eleventh Plan will revolve around the issue of expansion, inclusiveness and quality, including academic reforms. The Plan sets a target GER of 15 per cent by 2012. This is proposed to be achieved through increase in the intake capacity of existing institutions and through establishment of new institutions. Under the PM’s initiative, 30 new central universities have already been announced.

This strategy for expansion will have to be combined with measures for reducing regional imbalances, with central support to states on matching basis. Under the PM’s initiative, the establishment of a college in each of the 350 districts with low GER and less number of colleges per lakh population has been announced. Besides, there will be focus on hilly, border, tribal, remote, rural and small town areas.

The strategy for enrolment expansion will be combined with that of inclusion for social groups like women, SC, ST, OBC, minorities like Muslims, the physically challenged and the poor in general. This will include support to universities and colleges having high proportion of students from these groups, and also to institutions located in districts with relatively higher concentration of their population.

There are a number of steps proposed for promoting quality and excellence. First, it will include support to 60 per cent colleges and 40 per cent universities that are so far ineligible to receive UGC grants. Bringing them within the orbit of UGC grant, with matching grants from states, shall certainly improve their quality.

Second, it will comprise measures for bridging the quality gap between C- and A-grade colleges and universities, which will again be based on matching commitment from states.

Third, it will focus on adequate availability of quality teachers, which, in turn, will require enhanced funding for research and
fellowships for PhD. It will also require steps with respect to salary, appointment, mobility of teachers and others.

The issue of academic practices relating to admission, examination and assessment has been in the public domain ever since the Radhakrishna and the Kothari Commission. These have been selectively implemented but have not yet become a uniform practice. It is important to identify the enabling conditions for their wider use. This may require  selective approach, which calls for sharing of experience of those who have tried them successfully and with those who tried but failed.

The issue of regulating private education providers in a manner such that it facilitates their role and, at the same time, ensures quality and equity is equally important. All the three types of private providers — namely private-aided, private-unaided/self-financing institutions and also self-financing courses run by public-funded institutions — have seen rapid expansion in recent years. The Eleventh Plan proposed to develop a regulatory framework for private sector institutions, regulating admission, fees and governance.

In this sense, the Eleventh Plan takes a leap forward. It is important that these policies are implemented. It is with this in mind that the UGC organised four regional conferences of Vice-Chancellors, which culminated in the national conferences of Vice-Chancellors on October 10 and 11, to discuss the above issues and arrive at a common view.

Sukhadeo Thorat is Chairman, University Grants Commission

3 comments October 15th, 2007