BackUniversities fail to utilize allocated funds
Official data show as much as 66% of allocations remain unutilized by some varsities
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Amid a national debate about the insufficient funding of education and poor employability of students passing out of higher educational institutes, government documents show that several central and state universities have failed to utilize a sizable portion of their allocations, by as much as 66% in some instances. Improper communications to universities, uneven flow of funds, lack of ownership and hesitation in decision making are behind the problem, according to authorities and industry experts.
According to official data between 2009-10 and 2011-12, 23 of the older central universities have an unspent balance of ₹ 554 crore that’s nearly 28% of the total allocation.
Others have fared worse. The Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University and Nagaland University have a 40% underutilization record for the above period.
New central universities, which came up in the last four years, have done even more poorly. For instance, the Central University of Himachal Pradesh has only spent around one-third of the funds. In 11th Five-Year Plan ended 31 March, 2012, Delhi University could not spend ₹ 66 crore while Central University of Tamil Nadu had an unspent balance of ₹ 89.53 crore.
During the 11th Plan, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the apex regulator of universities, sanctioned just ₹ 688.76 crore to 131 state universities against an allocation of ₹ 1,139.63 crore as development grants. The universities were also told about the available funds only in 2009-10, two years after the 11th Plan began. Worse still, these universities utilized only ₹ 313.35 crore, or less than 28% of the total fund meant for the improvement of universities.
Amit Bhatia, chairman of Aspire India, an education and employability training company, said that “several universities, mainly government ones, don’t take decisions. It’s a clear case of lack of ownership and initiative."
Even a parliamentary committee on human resource development last month expressed its displeasure over fund utilization by universities and the response of the UGC. “The committee is not happy with the response... What is required is pro-active action both on parts of the UGC and concerned universities."
Bhatia said teachers and authorities in many government-controlled universities are “not ready to take up administrative responsibility nor they are trained to do so. They hesitate to partner with the private sector. And those who take decisions often face criticism from their peers leading to cancellation of innovation initiatives."
Bhatia’s company is currently engaged with 100 universities and colleges to bridge the education-employability mismatch.
He said the underutilization of funds hampers the growth of the institute and employability of students and suggested that a board akin to ones in place for the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) could be a solution.
“Like IIMs, there needs to be an industry-academia council headed by a reputed industrialist. And the unspent money needs to be given to this council to utilize it in a manner that will change the curriculum, improve the quality of education, and boost employability," he said.
Even the government’s Economic Survey last month pointed to the quality of education and said bottlenecks needed to be removed on a priority basis for better job creation. Raghuram Rajan, chief economic adviser in the finance ministry, echoed this sentiment in an interview with Mint last week.
The UGC chairman couldn’t be reached.
K.B. Powar, a former secretary general of the Association of Indian Universities, said that it may not be fair to blame the universities. “Many private universities have been set up in places where teachers don’t want to go. The infrastructure is not there and students, too, are relatively less. So, how will you spend the funds."
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