The University Grants Commission of India is a statutory body set up by the Government of India in accordance to the UGC Act 1956 under Ministry of Education, and is charged with coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of higher education. It provides recognition to universities in India, and disbursements of funds to such recognized universities and colleges. Without its recognition, no university in India can grant degree. Its headquarters is in New Delhi, and has six regional centres in Pune, Bhopal, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Guwahati and Bangalore. A proposal to replace it with another new regulatory body called HECI is under consideration of Government of India. UGC is modelled after University Grants Committee of UK which was an advisory committee of the British government and advised on the distribution of grant funding amongst the British universities. The committee was in existence from 1919 until 1989.
History
The UGC was first formed in 1945 to oversee the work of the three Central Universities of Aligarh, Banaras and Delhi. Its responsibility was extended in 1947 to cover all Indian universities. In August 1949 a recommendation was made to reconstitute the UGC along similar lines to the University Grants Committee of the United Kingdom. This recommendation was made by the University Education Commission of 1948-1949 which was set up under the chairmanship of S. Radhakrishnan "to report on Indian university education and suggest improvements and extensions". In 1952 the government decided that all grants to universities and higher learning institutions should be handled by the UGC. Subsequently, an inauguration was held on 28 December 1953 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the Minister of Education, Natural Resources and Scientific Research. In November 1956 the UGC became a statutory body upon the passing of the "University Grants Commission Act, 1956" by the Indian Parliament. In 1994 and 1995 the UGC decentralised its operations by setting up six regional centres at Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bhopal, Guwahati and Bangalore. The head office of the UGC is located at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg in New Delhi, with two additional bureaus operating from 35, Feroze Shah Road and the South Campus of University of Delhi as well. In December 2015 the Indian government set a National Institutional of Ranking Framework under UGC which will rank all educational institutes by April 2016. In December 2017 D.P. Singh, former director of National Assessment and Accreditation Council , was appointed chairman for a period of five years, replacing UGC member Virander Singh Chauhan, who officiated the position since the retirement of Ved Prakash in April 2017.
Types of universities
The types of universities controlled by the UGC include:
State universities are run by the state government of each of the states and territories of India and are usually established by a local legislative assembly act., the UGC lists 370 state universities. The oldest establishment date listed by the UGC is 1857, shared by the University of Mumbai, the University of Madras and the University of Calcutta. Most State Universities are affiliating universities in that they administer many affiliated colleges that typically offer a range of undergraduate courses, but may also offer post-graduate courses. More established colleges may even offer Ph.D. programs in some departments with the approval of the affiliating university.
Deemed university, or "Deemed to be University", is a status of autonomy granted by the Department of Higher Education on the advice of the UGC, under Section 3 of the UGC Act., the UGC lists 123 deemed universities. According to this list, the first institute to be granted deemed university status was Indian Institute of Science, which was granted this status on 12 May 1958. In many cases, the same listing by the UGC covers several institutes. For example, the listing for Homi Bhabha National Institute covers the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research and other institutes.
Private universities are approved by the UGC. They can grant degrees but they are not allowed to have off-campus affiliated colleges., the UGC list of private universities lists 282 universities.
The University Grants Commission has also released the list of 24 fake Universities operating in India. UGC has said that these 24 self-styled, unrecognized institutions functioning in contravention of the UGC Act have been declared as fake and are not entitled to confer any degrees.
Professional councils
UGC, along with CSIR currently conducts NET for appointments of teachers in colleges and universities. It has made NET qualification mandatory for teaching at Graduation level and at Post Graduation level since July 2009. However, those with Ph.D are given five percent relaxation. Accreditation for higher learning over Universities under the aegis of University Grants Commission is overseen by following fifteen autonomous statutory institutions :
In 2009, the Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal made known the government of India's plans to consider the closing down of the UGC and the related body All India Council for Technical Education, in favour of a higher regulatory body with more sweeping powers. This goal, proposed by the Higher Education and Research Bill, 2011, intends to replace the UGC with a "National Commission for Higher Education & Research " "for determination, coordination, maintenance and continued enhancement of standards of higher education and research". The bill proposes absorbing the UGC and other academic agencies into this new organisation. Those agencies involved in medicine and law would be exempt from this merger "to set minimum standards for medical and legal education leading to professional practice". The bill has received opposition from the local governments of the Indian states of Bihar, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, but has received general support. On 27 June 2018, the Ministry of Human Resource Development announced its plans to repeal the UGC Act, 1956. A bill was expected to be introduced in the 2018 monsoon session of the Parliament, which if passed would have lead to the dissolution of the UGC. The bill also stipulated formation of a new body, the Higher Education Commission of India. This form of the bill was ultimately dropped in the face of strong political opposition, and was reworked in 2019 in order to gain political consensus. As of mid-2020 the UGC continues to remain in existence.
