Grants released by the UGC under minor and major research projects (science and humanities) have also been falling, the response shows. (Express File) The government’s responses to a string of Parliament questions on higher education have revealed that annually a large proportion of budget funds meant for the sector goes unused.
The year 2021-22 is not likely to be any exception; out of Rs 93,224 crore earmarked for education in the last budget, only Rs 56,567 crore have been utilised, according to the response furnished by the Ministry of Education to a question by BJD Rajya Sabha MP Sasmit Patra.
In a response to a separate question, the government said that in 2021-22, the unspent balance (as on January 11) of central universities and centrally funded higher education institutes stood at Rs 7,143 crore. It was Rs 274 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 355 crore in 2019-20.
Also, 6,535 of 19,349 faculty posts sanctioned for 46 central central universities are vacant. Delhi University leads the chart with 859 vacancies, followed by the University of Allahabad (611 vacancies), Banaras Hindu University (499) and Aligarh Muslim University (359).
A detailed break-up of budgetary allocations and expenditure related to Rusa (Rashtriya Uchhatar Shiksha Abhiyan), Impress (social science research funding), and Imprint (funding for research in premier institutions) and the University Grants Commission’s funding for research shows consistent below-par utilisation of funds.
In a written response to TMC Rajya Sabha member Jawhar Sircar, the ministry revealed that in 2020-21, only Rs 165 crore out of Rs 300 crore allotted for Rusa could be spent. In 2019-20, Rs 2,100 crore was allotted and Rs 1,277 crore used. In 2021-22, Rs 3,000 crore was allotted. The figure has now been revised to Rs 793.26 crore. Rusa is a central scheme to fund state government-run institutions of higher and technical education.
The response further shows that in 2020-21, Rs 12 crore of Rs 25 crore allotted under Impress could be spent. While Rs 18.75 crore of Rs 75 crore allotted was spent in 2019-20, only Rs 3.75 crore of Rs 25 crore earmarked in 2019-19 was spent.
In the case of Imprint, fund utilisation was better. Rs 53 crore was set aside for the scheme in 2019-20, of which Rs 47.2 crore could be utilised. Rs 46.30 out of Rs 50 crore and Rs 75.71 crore of Rs 85 crore were the figures for 2018-19 and 2017-18 respectively.
Grants released by the UGC under minor and major research projects (science and humanities) have also been falling, the response shows. They came down from Rs 42.70 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 38.60 crore in 2017-18, Rs 13.26 crore in 2018-19, Rs 5.75 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 38 lakh in 2020-21.
Asked whether the UGC had stopped fellowships such as the Dr S Radhakrishnan Postdoctoral Fellowship in Humanities and Social Sciences and postdoctoral fellowships to women and scheduled caste/scheduled tribe candidates, the government said that after the 12th Plan period ended, the commission decided to revise and “rationalise” guidelines for these schemes. “The revised guidelines prepared by the committee have been approved by the commission and the UGC is in the final stage of inviting applications as per the revised guidelines,” the government said.
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