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There’s no harm as long as the needs of the higher education in general and the universities in particular are properly assessed, and the decision is taken in consultation with the UGC.

The FM’s announcement providing a grant of Rs 100 crore each to the three oldest universities of Calcutta, Mumbai and Madras — each of which have now completed 150 years of existence — and to the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, a premier agricultural research university, is welcome for several reasons.

First, these universities have distinguished histories and are themselves deserving candidates for higher financial support.

Second, and more importantly, one hopes that the announcement also signals the government’s commitment to increase the resource pool available to all levels of education, including higher education.

Per capita real resources available to universities and colleges in India have been declining since the economic reforms got underway. That has contributed significantly to the deterioration in the human resource pool and the standard of higher education in India. This can’t be filled by the private sector, which focuses on a small number of professional educational streams.

The 2006-07 budget shows an increase in allocation to secondary and higher education from Rs 5,800 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 6,982 crore in 2006-07. The allocation to university and higher education has increased from Rs 2,278 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 2,774 crore in 2006-07 while the UGC’s budget has been increased from Rs 2,099 crore to Rs 2,600 crore.

However, it is not clear whether the grants to the centennial universities have been made a part of the UGC budget. If so, the UGC will hardly have any room for manoeuvre to increase budgetary resources to all other parts of the university system.

The announcement of the additional grants to the four universities also contains the rider that the resource will be used for a “specified research department or research programme” in each of the institutions. This is neither desirable nor necessary.

(*Centre for Studies in Regional Development)

Source: The Economic TimesMore