The University Grants Commission (UGC) was established under the University Grants Commission Act, 1956. The working of the Act includes making provision for the coordination and determination of standards in universities and, for that purpose, to establish a University Grants Commission. Broadly speaking, the UGC can determine standards of education, which includes teaching, examination and research, release funds for development or for performance of special functions by a university, tell a university what needs to be done for improvement of education, lay down standards for colleges under a university and make rules for their affiliation, recommend pay scales, qualifications and methods of recruitment and promotion of teachers and take necessary steps to penalize the university or college which does not comply with its regulations.
The UGC has been reasonably effective in providing adequate funds and ensuring that teaching departments are created to fulfill the required functions of any university. However, in the matter of universities incorporated under a state law, the record of the UGC is not very good. For instance the selection of the Vice Chancellor is done by a search committee in which there is one representative each of the Chancellor (Governor), the UGC and the executive council of the university. The Chancellor’s nominee is always the Chairperson and he or she exerts a considerable influence over the selection of the panel for the post. For a commission that is more than 50-year-old, the existence of such universities in large numbers only proves that the UGC has failed in its duty to promote and coordinate university education, determine standards of education and ensure maintenance of the same.
State governments are responsible for setting up new colleges. However, in the matter of affiliation and recognition of such colleges, the UGC has a role to play, as under Section 14 of the Act, it can give suitable directions to a university that affiliates non-standard colleges. If the university fails to comply, the UGC can withhold its grant. It is well known that a majority of our colleges fall far short of any acceptable educational standards in terms of infrastructure, faculty, research, teaching aids and equipment, etc. Such colleges are affiliated by the university concerned and the UGC rarely intervenes in order to end such a violation.
The UGC is required to promote research. Certainly, some well-known universities are well endowed and subsidized in promoting research. However, the process of sanctioning major research projects is so cumbersome and so heavily weighted in favor of metropolitan universities that most teachers and researchers in the states find it difficult to obtain an adequate research grant. One reason for the failure of the UGC to promote research, keep an observant eye on violation of norms relating to standards of education and teaching and appointment of unsuitable teachers is that its headquarters' organization is too bureaucratized and too bound up in red tape and its field organizations, the regional offices, are generally without a proper head and understaffed.
It is now necessary for the government to have a detailed review of the functioning of the UGC and take necessary steps to ensure that the commission is strengthened and helped in doing the job for which it was constituted.