University Grants Commission (UGC).
University Grants Commission (UGC).
All central universities are to sign a tripartite agreement with the HRD ministry and the UGC to ensure that their executive councils will not lay down any policy that has “an overriding or overruling impact” on the act under which they were established.
The order, issued by the Ministry of Finance, follows the Centre’s decision to grant graded autonomy to the country’s higher educational institutions. Under this system, the institutions will be categorised into three different groups based on their standards.
They also have to agree that they will achieve certain performance parameters fixed by the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry and the University Grants Commission (UGC).
The ministry has circulated a draft of the tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) among the central universities, asking the UGC to get them filled up and duly signed by the vice chancellors at the earliest.
The MoUs should also clearly spell out the output targets for the institutions in terms of the programme of work and qualitative improvement along with the commensurate input requirements.
“The roadmap for improved performance with clear milestones should form part of the MoU,” the Department of Expenditure noted in a communication to the HRD Ministry.
Official sources said that the move is aimed at ensuring that universities remain accountable “to the nation and the government”.
As every central university is “a unique university” which has its own special features, the UGC has been instructed to sign the MoU with each university separately after consultation with the respective vice chancellors, they said.
The UGC is currently busy giving shape to the graded autonomy system.