Unaided Colleges Being Overlooked By Ugc

Unaided colleges being overlooked by UGC? R. Krishnamoorthy & Shastry V. Mallady EducationPlus Many such institutions believe they deserve assistance ``While on the one hand the UGC emphasises on quality of higher education, on the other, it denies funds to self-financing colleges for conduct of workshops and seminars, which are essential for enhancing the professional competence of the faculty.'' Unaided colleges in parts of Tamil Nadu feel they are being overlooked by the University Grants Commission, specifically in terms of funding projects that help faculty improve their capabilities. These unaided colleges coming under Section 2f and 12B clauses of the UGC Act of 1956 say the UGC has with held development grants for them for the Tenth Plan period. Under the scheme, the UGC provides funds for development of infrastructure, upgrading of library and laboratories, purchase of equipment, and for carrying out improvements in higher education system, and removing regional disparities and imbalances in the system. The self-financing colleges, for example, in the Bharathidasan University area, find themselves out of the reckoning of the development grants. There are as many as 43 such institutions coming under the 2f and 12B clauses of the UGC Act. While on the one hand the UGC emphasises quality of higher education, on the other, it denies funds to self-financing colleges for conduct of workshops and seminars, which are essential for enhancing the professional competence of the faculty, laments a principal of a reputed self-financing college. These institutions wonder why the UGC should do away with the privilege they enjoyed in the earlier Plan periods. The principals say the teachers recruited in recent years with Ph.D qualifications had proven competence, and hence must be entitled to undertaking UGC-funded projects: Rs. 1 lakh for minor projects and Rs. 12 lakhs for major projects (Rs. 10 lakh for Arts discipline). Heads of these institutions say the UGC must at least grade the self-financing affiliated colleges for specific funding and project proposals of their faculty where the institutions have obtained the accreditation of the National Assessment and Accreditation Committee (NAAC). `Discrimination'

In the Madurai area too, the UGC funding and grants is becoming a subject of intense debate. Unaided colleges say the Commission should no longer differentiate among government/aided colleges and unaided institutions. Principals argue that if the objective of reaching quality higher education should be balanced across the country, the UGC should not `discriminate' self-financing

colleges for giving development assistance under Section 2F and 12 B of the UGC Act of 1956. "Self-financing colleges have outnumbered government and aided colleges in many regions and States. Hereafter, the growth of higher education depends on only selffinancing colleges since financial aid from State Governments is coming down gradually," says G. Thiruvasagam, general secretary of Madurai Kamaraj University College Principals' Association. In the Madurai region, Thassim Beevi Abdul Kadar College for Women at Kilakarai in Ramanathapuram district, a self-financing college that was receiving UGC grant (Section 2F and 12B) since 1991, is one of the examples to show how development activity is taken up with apex body money. "But, suddenly under the Tenth Plan, we were told that 12B grant will not come and only aided colleges are eligible. Our college carried out many projects with UGC assistance and the latest policy decision appears to be a sign of discrimination," Dr. Sumayya Dawood, principal of Kilakarai college, explains. Dr. Thiruvasagam says the UGC should not restrict its grants but extend it to selffinancing colleges also and, if required, it can directly monitor how and where the money is being spent. The grant received under 2F and 12 B enable colleges to get Ministry grants also and it is spent towards strengthening infrastructure, purchasing equipment, staff development, library improvement, extension activity, vocational courses, science improvement programmes, research grants for teachers and faculty development activities. "We are now badly affected because of UGC's separate policy for self-financing colleges. It should try to help institutions grow in rural areas through development assistance. We have already developed the college with earlier funds," Dr. Sumayya says. "Self-financing colleges cannot be denied an opportunity." She wonders whether encouraging privatisation of higher education means denying opportunity for colleges that properly utilise the grants and take quality education to rural students. While welcoming a strict monitoring directly by the UGC of colleges that receive funds, Dr. Thiruvasagam says the perception that only rich students study in selffinancing colleges is completely wrong.