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At present UGC provides grant to 7,000 institutions, out of nearly 21,500 universities and colleges in the country. The UGC (Fitness of Institutions for Grants) Rules 1975 has been amended by the HRD Ministry, a senior official said.
The rules have been amended at a time when the UGC is set to start a new scheme for one-time grant for the private and unaided institutes. The amendment will enable the UGC to relax one or more of its conditions for giving grants to private and unaided institutions in the country.
As per the earlier rules, those private institutes, which met certain criteria with regard to faculty and infrastructure, got grants from the UGC. The criteria included five departments each having one professor, two readers and three to four lecturers and administrative and academic buildings.
“Now, even if certain institutes do not have such facilities and faculty, they can be considered for grants. The UGC (Fitness of Institutions for Grants) (Amendment) Rules 2009 allows the UGC to relax norms,” the official said. A few thousand private and unaided institutions are expected to benefit from the scheme, the source said.