UGC

ABOUT UGC

The first attempt to formulate a national system of education in India came In 1944, with the Report of the Central Advisory Board of Education on Post War Educational Development in India, also known as the Sargeant Report. It recommended the formation of a University Grants Committee, which was formed in 1945 to oversee the work of the three Central Universities of Aligarh, Banarasand Delhi. In 1947, the Committee was entrusted with the responsibility of dealing with all the then existing Universities.

Soon after Independence, the University Education Commission was set up in 1948 under the Chairmanship of Dr. S Radhakrishnan "to report on Indian university education and suggest improvements and extensions that might be desirable to suit the present and future needs and aspirations of the country". It recommended that the University Grants Committee be reconstituted on the general model of the University Grants Commission of the United Kingdom with a full-time Chairman and other members to be appointed from amongst educationists of repute.

In 1952, the Union Government decided that all cases pertaining to the allocation of grants-in-aid from public funds to the Central Universities and other Universities and Institutions of higher learning might be referred to the University Grants Commission. Consequently, the University Grants Commission (UGC) was formally inaugurated by late Shri Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the then Minister of Education, Natural Resources and Scientific Research on 28 December 1953.

The UGC, however, was formally established only in November 1956 as a statutory body of the Government of India through an Act of Parliament for the coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of university education in India. In order to ensure effective region-wise coverage throughout the country, the UGC has 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.

Inclusion of colleges under Section 2(f), the UGC includes the Colleges under Section 12(B) of UGC Act, 1956

The University Grants Commission (UGC) provides financial assistance to eligible colleges which are included under Section 2(f)* and declared fit to receive central assistance (UGC grant) under Section 12 (B)** of UGC Act, 1956 as per approved pattern of assistance under various schemes.

     * The UGC had notified Regulations for recognition of colleges under Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956. The colleges are brought under the purview of UGC in terms of these Regulations as and when the proposals are received from the colleges for inclusion under Section 2(f) and they are found fit for inclusion as per the provisions contained in the Regulations.

     ** Apart from inclusion of colleges under Section 2(f), the UGC includes the Colleges under Section 12(B) of its Act in terms of Rules framed under the Act. This makes the colleges eligible for central assistance from the Government of India or any organization receiving funds from the Central Government.