Full Form of UGC
University Grants Commission of India
UGC Full Form is University Grants Commission of India. UGC is an Indian statutory body which was formally established in 1956 by the Union Government. It is in charge of maintaining and determining the norms of higher education. It offers recognition to the Indian universities and provides the fund to them. The binding chairperson of UGC is Prof. Ved Prakash. UGC has its headquarters in New Delhi.
It has decentralized operations through the 6 centers in Bhopal, Pune, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Kolkata. UGC is the only agency that offers grants to universities. It has two core responsibilities which include (1) To provide funds, (2) To determine, coordinate, and maintain institutional standards of higher education. It also serves as the main link between the state and union governments; universities and colleges.
UGC Full Form – Additional Information
The Government of India has formed a statutory body under the HR Development Ministry in accordance with the UGC Act of the year 1956. This body is known as the UGC or University Grants Commission. Its head office can be found in Delhi. Its regional centres are present in six locations, which are Guwahati, Kolkata, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Bhopal. The UGC helps in the promotion of the education imparted in various universities all over India. It also helps in the coordination of the same.
The standards of research, examination and teaching are determined by this body, and it forms reforms as well as policies for its maintenance. It also monitors the developments being made in the area of university education. It forms a link between the institutes of higher education and the state as well as central government. Additionally, it provides suitable advice to the state and the central government on the measures needed for improving the quality of the education in institutes and colleges.
History of the UGC
The formation of the UGC can be traced back to the University Grants Committee. The formation of this committee was done in 1945. Its main function was to monitor and check the work being done in the nation’s three central universities, which were in Delhi, Banaras and Aligarh. The committee was given the responsibility of the same work for all universities of the nation after 2 years. Dr. Radhakrishnan, the chairmen of the commission in the year 1948, proposed the reformation of the committee as the University Grant Commission. The inauguration of the UGC was eventually done in the year 1953 by Abdul Kalam Azad. In the year 1956, the UGC got the statutory body’s status.
Grants offered by the UGC
There are more than sixteen central universities in India which receive grants from the UGC. The same is true for more than fifty university colleges. Thus, distributing grants is the main function of the UGC. In addition to the IUC or the inter-university centres, 4 colleges associated with the BHU or Banaras Hindu University are also the receivers of grants from this body. There are forty-two schemes through which the commission provides these grants. The categorization of these schemes can be done under four divisions. These are university schemes, schemes for both colleges as well as universities, only college scheme and schemes for individual researchers and faculty members.
Awards and Honours
Those scientists and scholars who have an outstanding performance in the education field are awarded by the UGC every year.
Ashram Trust award:
The commission constituted the Ashram Trust award in the year 1974 for recognizing the work done by outstanding scientists. The Ashram Trust assists this award. Each award has a value of fifty thousand rupees. The trust contributes ten thousand rupees in it. Some of these awards are Meghnad Award, which is given for Theoretical Science; Jagdish Chandra Award, given for the outstanding work in Life Science and Homi Bhabha award, given for Applied Sciences.
National Sanskrit Award:
The commission constituted this award for promoting the research as well as the teaching of the Sanskrit language. The outstanding Sanskrit teachers are recognized by this award. A reward of one lakh rupees is carried by it, and citation is also included in it.
Inter University Centres
The ICU or the Inter-University centres were set up by the UGC. The main aim of these centres was to offer the facilities of research for those colleges and universities which do not possess the required investment as well as infrastructure in order to undertake them themselves. There are seven such centres currently. Some of these include IUAC or Inter University Accelerator Centre, IUAA or Inter University for Astrophysics and astronomy, Library and information network, National Accreditation and Assessment Council. Additionally, four national facilities are established by the UGC. These include the Regional Instrumentation Centre in Mumbai, Centre for Social Science and Humanities in Shimla, Radar facilities in Tirupati and Crystal Growth Centre in Madras.
Future of UGC
The Education minister disclosed the Indian Government’s plans of closing the commission, along with AICTE in the year 1976. The proposition of this goal was again done in the year 2011 by the bill on higher education in order to maintain, coordinate, determine and increase the quality of research and higher education. A new organization, named NCHER or National commission for Higher Education and Research will absorb the commission.
The agencies which are exempted from this merging include law and medicine. This is done for setting minimum standards related to the education of law and medicine that leads to professional practice. The Governments of Tamil Nadu, Kerela, West Bengal, Punjab, and Bihar are opposing the formation but have received support from the general public. An online system of admission is to be set up by all universities for the academic session starting from the year 2016.