Union ministry of education decides to continue RUSA till March 2026

The Union ministry of education (MoE) has decided to continue the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) – a Centre-sponsored scheme for funding the state universities and colleges to achieve equity, access and excellence – till 2026, a communique from the ministry stated recently.

The proposal entails an expenditure of Rs 12,929.16 crore out of which the central share is Rs 8,120.97 crore and the state share is Rs 4,808.19 crores, the communique added. RUSA has been envisaged to support around 1,600 projects under the new phase of the scheme.

"The new phase of the scheme has been designed to implement some of the recommendations and aims of the new education policy, which suggests some key changes to the current higher education system to revamp and re-energize it and thereby deliver quality higher education, with equity and inclusion," the communique further read.

Under the new phase of the scheme, state governments will be supported for gender inclusion, equity initiatives, ICT, enhancing employability through vocationalisation and skill upgradation.

"The new phase of RUSA targets to reach out the unserved, underserved areas, remote and rural areas, difficult geographies, aspirational districts, tier-2 cities, areas with low GER, to benefit the most disadvantaged areas and SEDGs (Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Groups)," a notification from the ministry of education read.

According to this notification, states will be supported for creation of new model degree colleges, while state universities will be supported for multi-disciplinary education and research.

Grants will be provided for strengthening both accredited and non-accredited universities and colleges for undertaking various activities including teaching-learning in Indian languages.