The Centre has turned down the request of the State Governments to convert their selected universities into Central Universities.
Citing legacy and existing staff problems, the HRD Ministry has conveyed to the States that they should rather take help through the Centrally sponsored scheme of Rashtriya Uchchttar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) to upgrade their universities.
In a meeting on Thursday on the conversion of the State Universities into Central Universities, the Ministry decided not to convert them due to legacy issues, adjustment of existing staff and disaffiliation of affiliated colleges, sources said.
The HRD Ministry, however, maintained that RUSA would incentivise the State Governments to improve higher education by creating additional capacity in the existing institution and set up new ones in un-served and underserved areas. “Under this scheme, the State Government would have the flexibility to set up new universities and colleges keeping in mind the local requirements,” said a HRD official.
The Ministry in a communication to the State Governments cited the 12th Five Year Plan approved by the National Development Council where the focus is on scaling up of capacity in existing institutions rather than increasing the number of institutions, with exception of new institutions needed to address critical regional and social gaps.
And with a view to increasing access and improving the quality of higher education in the country, the 11th Five Year Plan envisaged setting up of one Central University each in States which did not have any Central University till then. Accordingly, 16 Central Universities were established by the Central Universities Act, 2009 in different un-served States.