Author: rinkutai

Modern global universities rely on Endowment Funds that are shielded from government interference. Section 16 is archaic because it treats the UGC as a pass-through entity for government cash rather than a wealth-generating trust that can sustain higher education through economic downturns.

his section is a direct descendant of the Wood’s Despatch (1854) system, where the British government used financial aid to ensure that private and local institutions remained ideologically and administratively aligned with the Crown's interests.

Colleges recognized under Section 12B of the UGC Act 1956 are eligible for central assistance. This section ensure that colleges meet certain standards of academic and infrastructural quality, allowing them to receive financial grants for development projects, research activities, and capacity building.

The phrase “all other relevant factors” under Sub-section (2)(d) allows the UGC to include almost any criteria in its fee regulations, which can lead to regulatory creep where the Commission starts dictating internal university budget allocations under the guise of fee regulation.

Clause (b) examines the types of activities or professions graduates will engage in, like medicine, engineering, or teaching, where public safety or quality matters.

This fragmented funding model leads to institutional stagnation, where universities wait years for grants while inflation erodes the value of the allocated funds.

The words “all such steps” are of wide import. The steps referred to in Section 12 may include issuance of guidelines, directions, circulars etc. Hence the Guidelines issued in exercise of statutory powers, thus, cannot be said to be non-statutory.

The UGC’s lack of professional, independent administrative staff, in influence of the slow-moving Government Rule machinery has hindered its ability to regulate a 21st-century education market.

An associated person might be a professor from a private university giving advice on regulations that affect their own institution.

But the Act is silent on vacancy of Chairman or Vice-Chairman of the Commission. In absence of these two leadership posts who will be authorized to sign on behalf of them?