More power for varsities from new academic year

Beginning from the academic session 2006-07, Delhi University and all other universities, getting aid from the University Grants Commission (UGC), will be free to utilise funds the way they please.

Published on: Jan 23, 2006, 12:12:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Beginning from the academic session 2006-07, Delhi University and all other universities, getting aid from the University Grants Commission (UGC), will be free to utilise funds the way they please.

They will also be allowed to introduce their own fee structure; run self-finance courses; and put in place accountability regulations for teachers. These changes are being introduced in a bid to grant more autonomy to higher education institutes.

The UGC has ‘in principle’ adopted the report of the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry in this regard. The Kanti Biswas Committee report had suggested disbursement of block funds, rather than money for specific schemes, and it also allowed institutes to utilise money as per their priorities.

UGC Chairperson VN Rajshekharan Pillai informed that the expert group would soon finalise the guidelines for giving more autonomy to such institutes. Apart from freedom to utilise funds, UGC also wants to give functional autonomy to independent colleges with A++ and A+ accreditation.

It wants universities to think up ways of selecting research fellows and start self-finance courses before the onset of the new academic year. UGC will also examine other recommendations freedom to choose credit courses for easy mobility of students, switching to complete internal evaluation, and internal quality assurance for students and teachers.

SMART BOX

Agenda 2006-07
• More autonomy for
varsities getting funds from UGC
• Such universities will be free to utilise funds the way they please
• These varsities can also implement their own
fee structure, and run
self-finance courses

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Follow India news real-time updates and the latest news covered on Hindustan Times, featuring today's critical updates on Sonam Wangchuk Hunger Strike LIVE and more across India.