Beginning this coming financial year, colleges and universities across the country will be required to generate at least 10 per cent of the funds they seek.Officials of the University Grants Commission (UGC) confirmed to The Indian Express that a circular had been put out to ‘‘Centrally-run universities and colleges and forwarded to all state governments and UTs, to raise at least 10 per cent of their budgetary requirements from the coming fiscal year.’’Conceived by the Human Resource Development Ministry, the proposal met with little or no opposition from the state governments at the recent meet of education secretaries.To sell its idea, especially to Opposition-ruled states which have been very hostile to moves initiated by HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, the Ministry took the line that there simply was no money left. Moreover, it also tom-tommed that this would introduce a degree of financial autonomy in universities.At the meeting, Joshi clearly told the state governments that the Centre had no funds to open new universities. The best it could do was innovative fiscal management to run better the existing ones.Therefore, universities had no other option but to generate a portion of the fiscal requirement on their own.Ever since PV Narasimha Rao and his Finance Minister Manmohan Singh opened up the economy, both the Human Resource DevelopmentMinistry and the UGC have been toying with the idea that government-run universities should be made to generate their own funds and revenue.Of course, Singh ended up granting his alma mater — the Delhi School of Economics — more funds. But the proposal was left untouched for future consideration.Now while reviving the old scheme, the UGC has promised the college/university authorities that they will be given matching grants against the funds they manage to raise.This is also expected to lead to a fee hike long overdue, an obvious source of revenue generation for colleges and universities.‘‘It need not be the obvious fallout. The universities should try to enter into partnerships with the industry in a manner which is beneficial to both,’’ UGC officials said.
