State univs may have to dig into own pockets

Complete state funding of universities and colleges may soon be a thing of the past. Higher education institutes may have to dig into their own pockets to meet their expenditures, if the latest proposal of the human resource development ministry is considered.

Published on: Feb 18, 2006, 01:46:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Complete state funding of universities and colleges may soon be a thing of the past. Higher education institutes may have to dig into their own pockets to meet their expenditures, if the latest proposal of the human resource development ministry is considered.

The HRD ministry has reportedly sought suggestions on its proposal to drastically cut funding of state universities and colleges in the 11th Five Year Plan, which starts from the financial year 2007-08. The proposal doesn't include 19 central universities and autonomous colleges. They will continue to get the full support of the Centre, an official said.

According to sources, the ministry has proposed reducing the number of state universities and state colleges from the central funding list by almost one-third. Of the total 330 state universities, including deemed universities, the ministry has proposed giving grants to only 113 institutions. In the case of about 16,000 colleges, the ministry proposes to fund only about 5,000 of the lot.

According to a source, funding will not be withdrawn at one go. The idea is to bring central government funding to zero in two to three years time. "Our funds will be available only for specific schemes for improving quality of education in these institutions," he added.

Instead, the ministry has suggested that state governments and universities generate their own resources to meet the demand. The Planning Commission has already told the ministry to ask universities to collect 20 per cent of expenditure cost from fees. A communiqué in this regard has been sent to the Planning Commission, University Grants Commission, all governors and state governments. Their suggestions on the proposal have been sought.

The ministry already has a document on how to reduce state funding of higher education institutions. The Central Advisory Board for Education (CABE) committee on higher education has recommended gradual reduction in state funding in three years. The communiqué can be seen as a step towards creating a framework. HRD minister Arjun Singh had recently told HT: "We will have to draw a framework for reducing state funding and increasing fees in state-funded institutes of higher education. The ministry is working on it."

Sources say the need to make universities and colleges independent of state funding has risen as the government is keen on implementing the Right to Education Bill. For this, over Rs 50,000 crore will be required in the 11th Plan. "In addition to about Rs 8,000 crore from education cess, we will have to garner money from all heads of the HRD ministry. For this, allocation will have to be reduced," a Planning Commission official said.

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

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