University Grants Commission urges Centre to Set up corpus fund

New Delhi: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked the Centre to set up a corpus fund to provide financial assistance to students pursuing higher education. The UGC officials, who made a presentation before the Prime. Minister recently, opined that with the increasing cost of higher education every year, there was a need to extend financial help to deprived sections of society.

The UGC suggested that the corpus fund be around Rs.4,000 crore, of which the government could chip in around Rs.1,000 crore and the remaining amount could be raised through commercial banks.

The financial help could be in terms of a subsidized loan with the repayment of a certain amount after completion of the course. The loan amount and interest, provision of the grant, the method of repayment and eligibility for the loan were modalities that needed to be worked out, said an officer in the UGC.

The officials also suggested the Centre-set un a high level committee to study the fee structure in all the states for various courses and fix the loan amount based on the committee's recommendations. They were of the view that the disparity in the fee structure necessitated a corpus fund on the lines of those in other developed nations.

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