States not giving adequate grant for varsities: UGC chief

Tribune News Service 

Phagwara, May 23

University Grants Commission Chairman Ved Parkash said today that even as the allocation towards grants for universities had been increasing after every five years, the enrollment of students was going so high that the per capita share of grant was falling. He blamed states for the same saying that they were not mobilising the matching grant which was hitting the higher education.

The Chairman, who was at Lovely Professional University for the inaugural session of a three-day annual general meet of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), said the states had not been prioritising higher education in their budget allocations due to which the problem had been compounding. 

He said in the 11th Five-Year Plan, the allocation had been increased to 85,000 crore, going up by 9.5 times. In the 12th plan, allocation for grants was increased to the tune of Rs 110,000 crore. “The federal government has been constantly raising its allocation but the states are not coming up to the same level,” he said. 

He also asked Vice-Chancellors to suggest parameters on the basis of which the ranking could be given to universities. “We will have to do this in the interest of the students. We have already been doing accreditation of colleges which we have now made mandatory,” he said.

UGC Secretary Dr Jaspal Singh said, “We are in the process of making model syllabi for 58 subjects. We have been seeking feedback from the subject teachers. The details of the project are there on our website”.

The AIU national meet saw participation of top 200 international and national Vice Chancellors and officials from the Ministry of HRD. The UGC Chairman also released a special issue of the University News on ‘Promotion of Excellence in Higher Education in India’.