The University Grants Commission (UGC) has released the names of 54 private universities that have failed to provide the necessary information for inspection or upload public disclosure information on key aspects, including courses and fees.
In June 2024, UGC had circulated guidelines on public self-disclosure by Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs).
Section 13 of the UGC Act mandates UGC to conduct inspections of universities to ascertain the standard of teaching. The HEIs must provide information as sought by UGC during inspection. These 54 private universities have defaulted on the information sought by the commission.
“It has been noticed that 54 state private universities have not submitted the information under Section 13 of the UGC Act, 1956, or have not uploaded the public self-disclosure information on their respective websites. Accordingly, the list of universities that are yet to comply with the directions issued by the UGC is attached. All universities are requested to comply with the directions,” said a notice issued by UGC secretary Manish Joshi.
The universities include 10 universities from Madhya Pradesh, eight from Gujarat, five from Sikkim, four each from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Jharkhand, three each from Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Manipur, two from Maharashtra, one each from Assam, Goa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tripura, Haryana, Karnataka and Bengal.
According to the public disclosure guidelines, the HEIs are required to maintain a functional website and provide relevant information to stakeholders. Students, parents and people should be able to access the information easily on the home page without registration or logging in.
Under the guidelines, the universities have to disclose prominently on their website information on the institutional overview, Acts and statutes under which it has been set up, its constituent units and affiliated colleges, off-campus and off-shore campuses, accreditation and ranking status, recognition, annual reports, annual accounts, income and expenditure, audit report, details of the sponsoring body.
Each institute is also supposed to make public the profiles of its chancellor, vice-chancellor, registrar, principal, ombudsperson, executive council, board of management, academic council, and internal complaint committee. The institute has to furnish details of academic programmes, academic calendar, schools and department-wise faculty details with photographs, list of UGC-recognised distance mode and online programmes, fee structure for various programmes, admission process and guidelines and fee refund policy.
People should be able to know research and consultancy projects being carried out by the institution and its foreign and industry collaborations and incubation centres, student life, hostel details, placement cell and its activities, details of the student grievance redressal committee, health facilities, anti-ragging cell, and socio-economically disadvantaged groups cell.
