BENGALURU: Many colleges in the state are reeling under fund shortage as University Grants Commission (UGC) allocations to them have dried up over the past two years.
According to an RTI reply provided by the UGC regional office to TOI, funding for several schemes like general development assistance, minor research projects, faculty development programmes, and sports infrastructure dropped to nil in 2021-22. Details for 2019-20 could not be accessed.
Under general development assistance, UGC released Rs 3.6 crore in 2016-17, Rs 2.5 crore in 2017-18, and Rs 1.9 crore in 2018-19 to colleges in the state. It dropped to Rs 2.8 lakh in 2020-21 and nil in 2021-22. The beneficiaries dipped from 46 in 2016-17 to 2 in 2021-22.
Similarly, UGC had provided Rs 1.5 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 2.2 crore in 2018-19 to 46 and 36 beneficiaries, respectively, for faculty development programmes in Karnataka. It was Rs 1.9 lakh in 2020-21 for 11 beneficiaries. In 2021-22, there was no funding.
It’s the same story with several other schemes for which funding comes from the regional office. UGC released Rs 37 lakh for 117 beneficiaries in 2016-17 for minor research projects of teachers. The sum fell to Rs 21 lakh in 2017-18 and Rs 29 lakh in 2018-19. No funds were allocated during 2020-21 and 2021-22.
Funds under the autonomous colleges scheme also reduced to nil in 2021-22 from Rs 3.7 crore in 2016-17, Rs 2.9 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 3.9 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 20 lakh in 2020-21.
Colleges have started feeling the pinch. “We have not received funds in the past two years. Arrears are also pending. We have stopped all infrastructure development and maintenance work, and are completely relying on funds of managements as the fee from students does not suffice. For colleges run by smaller managements, things are worse,” said the principal of an autonomous college in the city.
“We don’t have any fund other than the one the department of collegiate education is providing. We have no power to do any other work than routine,” said the principal of a government college.
The UGC chairman did not respond to questions despite repeated calls and mails. However, sources in UGC said these schemes were stopped after the 12th five-year plan ended. No schemes are currently being funded from regional offices, they said.
“Many of the funds have been redirected to large research projects like STRIDE and SPARK. However, they can be accessed only by top institutions that have already demonstrated good research capacity. The local colleges, where a large majority of students study, will not benefit from them,” said an academician.
An official said: “They can get funds from RUSA or collaborate with top colleges for STRIDE and SPARK. It depends on the state government’s initiative to rope in colleges for this collaboration.”
“It has to be noted that a lot of UGC funds given to government colleges were unused and returned. Many colleges don’t take initiatives to use them either because the principals would be nearing retirement or posts would be vacant,” she said.
However, it has to be noted that RUSA funds are unavailable for aided colleges which have a large number of students. Moreover, they don’t have research funding like UGC.
While Karnataka remains the first state in the country to implement NEP, bottlenecks remain with UGC funding and its schemes. “When the government wants us to implement NEP, we should have sufficient funds also. As there is a dip from the Centre because of fund shortage, we should also look at internal generation. We should have CSR funding, increase tuition fees and UGC should also look at increasing its funding. Only then can we improve the quality of education,” said Venugopal KR, vice-chancellor, Bangalore University.
“It is the first time since independence that colleges are ignored by regulatory bodies to this extent. This will be against the spirit of NEP,” said the academician.
