Central Universities received fraction of research funds by December 2020

NEW DELHI: By December 31, 2020, central universities had received just a fraction of their budgets for research and development, data shared by the education ministry with Parliament during the budget session 2021 shows. Some centrally-run institutions had received just 50% of what had been disbursed to them in the 2019-20 financial year by December.

The delayed release of funds could have been due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the releases for the education ministry’s school education department was similarly delayed.

The ministry of education while replying to a question in Lok Sabha stated that Rs 6,838.31 crore was released to central universities to “give fillip” to research and innovation in 2020-21. In 2019-20, it was Rs 10,478.05 crore, albeit over the full financial year.

IoE: DU, BHU, Hyderabad University

In 2017, the Centre announced the ‘Institutions of Eminence’ (IoE) scheme. Institutions so designated would be given academic and financial autonomy and each public institution would get Rs 1,000 crore each to all the public institutions over a period of five years.

In response a questions raised in Parliament by the BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy, the ministry informed that the three central universities selected under the scheme, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), University of Hyderabad (UoH or HCU) and the University of Delhi (DU) received Rs 62 crore, Rs 70.95 crore and Rs 26.61 crore in 2020-21. BHU and Hyderabad University received Rs 22 crore each in 2019-20 also while DU did not receive any grant under the IoE scheme in 2019-20.

These three universities have also also among the worst hit CUs in terms of fund cut. Delhi University, one of the most sought after universities located close to the ministry, saw one of the worst fund cut in the past four years in 2020-21 with only Rs 1883 crore being allocated, while it was Rs 3161.83 crore a year ago and Rs 2592 crore in 2018-19. In the year 2020-21 BHU was allocated Rs 998 crore while in previous year it received Rs 1482 crore. Similarly, HU received Rs 187 crore in the current year while it was allocated Rs 288 crore in 2019-20.

Northeast states, Sikkim

There are nine central universities located in the northeast covering Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura. There is one central university in each of these states, barring Assam which has two, Tezpur University and Assam University.

These nine universities were granted Rs 482.04 crore out of the total Rs 6,838 crore. By December 2020, and with just three months to go for the end of the financial year, they received just half of what they had received the previous year.

Fund ‘fillip’ for Gujarat, Himachal

When all central universities saw reduced disbursals in 2020-21, two out of the 42 CUs saw an increase, Central University of Gujarat and Central University of Himachal Pradesh. The central government released Rs 29.13 crore for CUG in this year, more than Rs 25.37 crore in 2019-20. The CU located in HP received Rs 29 crore by December, up from Rs 27 crore.

Delhi: DU, Jamia, JNU

The national capital of Delhi, has three central universities -- Jamia Millia Islamia University, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) -- the second highest number after Uttar Pradesh. Jamia and JNU, both among the top universities in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF 2020) have received reduced funds as well. JNU received Rs 422.41crore in 2019-20 which went down to Rs 298.83 crore by December in 2020-21. JMI also received Rs 102 crore less in 2020-21 (by December) than in 2019-20.

Uttar Pradesh- highest number of CUs

Uttar Pradesh has highest number of central universities, which are also among the oldest and most reputed universities in the country- Aligarh Muslim University, Allahabad University, BHU, and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University at Lucknow. Though there have been delays for these universities as well, these four have together bagged Rs 2,278.77 crore, nearly one third of the total research budget of central universities.

AMU has got Rs 888.99 crore, which was Rs 1183.13 crore in 2019; AU received Rs 333.44 crore, down from Rs 441.77 crore a year ago; Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University got Rs 58.11 crore by December 2020 where it received Rs 67.96 in 2019-20.

Rs 449 crore to new CUs

As many as seventeen central universities were established in different part of the country since 2007 with infrastructure development work still going on at some of these institutions. There has been over 20 percent deduction in fund allocation to the new central universities which is around Rs 127 crore as in 2019-20 these institutions were allocated Rs 576.13, while they got Rs 449 crore in 2020-21.

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