Develop finance panels for state public varsities: Niti Aayog report
NITI Aayog recommends alumni programs and state finance agencies for public universities to enhance funding and infrastructure, addressing financial challenges.
The NITI Aayog, the apex policy think tank of the government, has recommended development of robust alumni engagement programmes as well as infrastructure finance agencies for state public universities (SPUs) on the lines of the Centre’s Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA), to effectively address their financial needs.
Develop finance panels for state public varsities: Niti Aayog report
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In a report released on Monday, titled “Expanding quality higher education through states and state public universities”, the Aayog has presented nearly 80 policy recommendations to address various issues related to four areas of SPUs: quality of education; funding and financing; governance; and employability among students enrolled in them.
Pointing out that SPUs — India has 423 of these, accounting for nearly 81% of the total enrolment among Indian HEIs — face financial challenges due to dependency on traditional revenue sources such as admission fees and state grants, the report underlined “administrative delays in fund sanctioning” along with the lack of framework for bank loans as major challenges for funding and financing of SPUs.
To overcome financial challenges, it suggested: “States may consider establishing a finance agency similar to the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA), dedicated specifically to SPUs. This agency, it added, should “focus on bolstering infrastructure and research facilities, thereby enabling SPUs to compete nationally and globally.”
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Set up by the education ministry in 2017, HEFA is a joint venture of the Centre and Canara Bank, which provides 10-year loans for infrastructural development at central universities and institutions of national importance.
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Set up by the education ministry in 2017, HEFA is a joint venture of the Centre and Canara Bank, which provides 10-year loans for infrastructural development at central universities and institutions of national importance.
Sanjay Maurya is a Principal Correspondent with Hindustan Times, where he covers education, with a focus on school and higher education, competitive examinations, education policy and governance. Working as part of the National Bureau, he is based in New Delhi and reports on the Ministry of Education and covers various statutory bodies like UGC, AICTE and NCTE and autonomous bodies like CBSE and NCERT. His reporting also tracks the implementation of key government reforms and policies from school education to higher education including in IITs, NITs, IIMs, central and state universities, and their impact on students and educational institutions. His reporting on the irregularities and rushed implementation of CBSE's On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for evaluation of Class 12 board exams 2026, triggered administrative action, leading to the transfer of the board's two senior-most officials and the constitution of a committee to probe alleged irregularities in procurement process of the system. He joined Hindustan Times in December 2024. Prior to that, he had a three-year stint at Careers360, where he reported on school and higher education, entrance examinations, admissions, rankings and various education policies involving universities and professional education bodies. Over the years, Maurya has reported extensively on major developments in India's education sector, including the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, reforms in the National Testing Agency (NTA) following the NEET-UG 2024 controversy, changes in school education, higher education regulation, and the evolution of entrance examinations such as NEET, JEE and CUET. He regularly produces data-driven and explanatory stories based on government documents, parliamentary proceedings, court records and official data. His focus remains on helping readers understand how education policies and institutional decisions affect millions of students, teachers and educational institutions across the country.
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