University Grant Commission (UGC)

The University Grant Commission was set up in November 1956 as a legal body of the Indian Government that can coordinate, determine and maintain the standard of the universities in India. The UGC came into existence through an act of Parliament. To make sure the education to be empowered in different parts of the country the ugc has been differentiated into 6 branches. The centres are Pane, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bhopal, Guwahati and Bangalore. The main branch (Head Office) is situated in Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg in New Delhi.
UGC is modelled after University Grants Committee of UK which was an advisory committee of the British government and advised on the distribution of grant funding amongst the British universities. The committee was in existence from 1919 until 1989.
The University Grants Commission of India (UGC India) is a statutory body set up by the Indian Union government in accordance to the UGC Act 1956[1] under Ministry of Human Resource Development, and is charged with coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of higher education. It provides recognition to universities in India, and disburses funds to such recognised universities and colleges. V.S. Chauhan is the incumbent chairman.[2] Its headquarters is in New Delhi, and six regional centres in Pune, Bhopal, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Guwahati and Bangalore.

The UGC has certain goal to empower the departments of education in every field including science, technology, management etc. The major responsibilities of the commission are to provide necessary funds and to coordinate, determine and to maintain the standard of universities and colleges.

• The following are the points included in the mandate of UGC:-

• To empower educational portal,

• To promote and coordinate university education

• Defining threshold limit of education standards

• Granting colleges and universities.

Acting as the connecting link between Union and State institutions so that higher education can be promoted. To advise the central and state Governments for enhancement of the university education.

So we can clearly state that UGC actually plays key role on educating the country. Many of the universities are recognized by university Grant Commission and those which are not recognized are known as fake universities. One can have an idea which university is better when he or she is going to get admitted. UGC has always made sure that in higher education a proper system must be followed. To make sure the knowledge and practical education of each student to be equal, the ugc has maintained equal standard of education in all universities and colleges. India being a huge populated nation contains thousands of technical and non-technical colleges and it is hard to maintain the same level of education in all those universities and colleges. UGC is the one that makes this possible for us and equalize all universities as far as the education level is concerned.

For a long time, since last 50 years the commission has been maintaining the balance in education field and it will keep on doing so. UGC also account for checking a teacher’s knowledge so that the education spread at colleges is of same level. Therefore a lecture has to get approval from UGC before getting appointed in any college.

After India got independent, the Indian Government realized that proper attention must be given to higher level of education. For example, PhD degree needed proper planning and attention at that time. To make this happen, the Government needed to create a wing that could handle the higher education with maintaining same level of education in all parts of the country. As a result, university grant commission was established.