UGC to allocate 20% of budget to PFMS

New Delhi: Even as talk about restructuring University Grants Commission (UGC) becomes louder, the higher education regulator has decided to pass on nearly 20% of its budget to the finance ministry-controlled public financial management system (PFMS) for direct credit to research fellows and development grants to colleges.

This would introduce transparency in the UGC’s finance management, allow research fellows to get grants at the beginning of every month without depending on the university or college, and reduce duplication of fellowship grants.

The initiative comes a month after the human resource development (HRD) ministry hiked research grants by up to 55%.

“The fellowship scheme of the UGC will be transferred to public financial management system,” the UGC said in a circular to all educational institutions. “It has also been decided that all the universities, colleges, institutions receiving grants under various schemes of the UGC may be brought under the PFMS effective 1 April 2015.” Mint has seen a copy of the circular.

Two government officials said, on condition of anonymity, that PFMS authorities held several rounds of interaction with the UGC, including one on Thursday, and decided to go ahead with the plan as it will lead to transparency and be part of the next level of direct benefit transfers promoted by the government. Both the fellowship and developmental grants cost the UGC between Rs.1,800 crore and Rs.1,900 crore per year. This year, the UGC has a budget of around Rs.9,615 crore.

The government in March not only increased the monthly grants to researchers but also did away with differential grant slabs. For example, all junior research fellows will get Rs.25,000 per month, up from Rs.16,000 per month, in their first two years and Rs.18,000 in next three years.

Similarly, senior research fellows will get Rs.28,000 per month instead of Rs.18,000 in the first two years and Rs.20,000 in the next two years.

The education regulator has informed the institutions that the move is in the interest of financial accountability, and non-enrolment with PFMS will result in “non-disbursement of funds”. It has asked them to complete the compliance process by the end of this month.

Direct transfer of fellowship grants will reduce the chances of malpractice and duplication in the system, said Ashwini Swain, a fellow at the CUTS Institute for Regulation and Competition. He, however, said that the UGC has to make sure that monitoring improves. If a research scholar leaves the programme halfway, a mechanism should be evolved to stop payments, he said.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.