New Delhi: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has recently unveiled an updated draft of its guidelines for the preparation of an Institutional Development Plan (IDP) aimed at higher education institutions (HEIs). This comprehensive document introduces several new recommendations, including the exploration of private sector partnerships as a means of raising funds, the implementation of a faculty ranking system, the establishment of an “emotional infrastructure”, and an initiative to expand undergraduate enrollment to boost revenues.
According to UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar, the newly unveiled draft, published on Wednesday, aims to assist universities and colleges in their pursuit of academic, administrative, and financial self- sufficiency. The first IDP guidelines were released in January last year by the commission, inviting input from stakeholders.
According to the guidelines:
- The HEIs must identify and prioritize the sources of funding for the development of financial infrastructure such as government grants, alumni donations, private sector partnerships, and fund-raising campaigns.
- They further suggested the HEIs, including both public and private, should work on a “sustainable revenue model” where the revenues are derived from sources including tuition fee from students, government grants and subsidies, overheads earned on the sponsored research and development projects from the government and the private sector, and endowments.
- Other income sources including philanthropic contributions such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), royalties on intellectual property (IP)/patents, etc.
- In a fully developed HEI, each of these sources must contribute about a similar percentage to the total revenue, depending on the size of the HEIs. Therefore, HEIs must also focus on expanding their undergraduate programmes as additional students mean more revenue.
- a “faculty ranking or assessment” based on research-based Academic Performance Indicators (API) scores and subsequent additional incentives to motivate teachers.
- Faculty members generate a winning spirit and constantly strive for excellence when their annual API rankings are announced, and they are graded according to different levels. Faculty oversight at every stage can be reduced in such scenarios.
- HEIs to create “emotional infrastructure” by providing a good working environment for all stakeholders with ethical policies and a transparent academic and administrative system and taking extra care in all service areas of both higher education and research activities.
The commission, however, has emphasized that the guidelines will serve as a general reference. ‘It is imperative that the autonomy of the institutes is maintained while developing and operationalizing such a plan. Therefore, the IDP guidelines are self-regulating in nature,’ as stated in draft.
