Now, apply online for UGC schemes

The move is primarily aimed at facilitating the universities, colleges, individual faculty members and researchers apply online, track and receive feedback on the schemes.

The project, now being executed on a trial basis, offers the online registration for providing travel grant for faculty.

Besides, the online registration will enable the institutes to track the status of their application, using the online registration number, on the UGC website, sources said. But the institutions have to submit the application in a prescribed format as per the scheme guidelines and send it through proper channel.

The Commission offers several grants to member universities. The initiative will cover various schemes, from infrastructure for women, students, teaching and non-teaching staff to training for candidates from the minority communities, in phased manner.

The regulator agency which monitors the performance of the various universities in the country had often been criticised for lack of transparency in its administration.

After taking flak from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the AICTE and the UGC have introduced numerous reforms within a short span of time. However, the task force dealing with finalising the Bill for setting up a National Commission for Higher Education and Research has been considering the creation of an independent funding agency for institutions of higher education.