New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its approval for continuation of Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) from 1.04.2017 to 31.03.2020.
Major impact and Targets:
a. RUSA seeks to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio of the country to 30% by 2020,
b. It also seeks to increase the spending on higher education by the State Governments,
c. The scheme, in its 2nd phase, aims at creation of 70 new model degree colleges and 8 newprofessional colleges; Enhancing quality and Excellence in 10 select State universities and 70autonomous colleges, providing infrastructural support to 50 universities and 750 colleges etc.
d. Improving access, equity and accessibility of higher education in Slates through reforms such asacademic reforms, governance reforms, affiliation reforms etc.
e. Improve equity in higher education by providing adequate opportunities of higher education tosocially deprived communities; promote inclusion of women, minorities, SC/ST/OBCs anddifferently abled persons,
f. To identity and fill up the existing gaps in higher education, by augmenting and supporting theState Governments’ efforts,
g. Promote a spirit of healthy competition amongst states and institutions to excel in quality highereducation, research and innovation.
Financial implication:
- During the period 2017-18 to 2019-20, the following is the financial outlay of the scheme:
| S.No.
|
Item
|
Rs. In Crore |
| 1
|
Committed Liabilities (Central Share) | 2453.54
|
| 2
|
New Proposals- Central share@ 65% | 4648.18
|
| 3
|
Total Central share of the scheme, w.e.f. 2017-18 to 2019-20 | 7101.72
|
| 4
|
Total cost of the scheme (incl. state share of new proposals) | 9604.58
|
b. Funding ratio: The project cost in the public funded institutions for all sub-components is shared between the Central Government and State Governments in the ratio of 90:10 for North-Eastern States, J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, 60:40 for other States and UTs with Legislature and 100:0 for UTs without Legislature.
c. The details of the components of the scheme are as follows:
| S.
No.
|
Component
|
Unit Cost of Component | Physical Targets
|
Financial Targets
(Rs. In crores) |
| (2017-20) | (2017-20) | |||
| 1
|
Creation of Universities by way of upgradation of existing autonomous colleges | 55
|
3
|
165
|
| 2
|
Creation of Universities by conversion of colleges in a cluster | 55
|
3
|
165
|
| 3 | Infrastructure grants to Universities | 20 | 50 | 1000 |
| 4
|
Enhancing Quality and Excellence in select State Universities (New) | 100
|
10 | 1000
|
| 5 | New Model Colleges (General) | 12 | 70 | 840 |
| 6
|
Upgradation of existing degree colleges to model degree colleges | 4
|
75
|
300
|
| 7 | New Colleges (Professional) | 26 | 8 | 224 |
| 8
|
Enhancing Quality and Excellence in Autonomous colleges (New) | 5
|
70
|
350
|
| 9 | Infrastructure grants to Colleges | 2 | 750 | 1500 |
| 10
|
Research, innovation and quality improvement (State as Unit) | 50
|
20
|
1000
|
| 11 | Equity initiatives (State as Unit) | 5 | 15 | 75 |
| 12
|
Facility Recruitment Support (Posts) | 0.48
|
200
|
96
|
| 13 | Faculty Improvements | 7 | 8 | 56 |
| 14
|
Institutional Restructuring, Capacity Building and Reforms | 3
|
30
|
90
|
| 15
|
National Higher Education Resource Centre (New) | 5
|
3 years
|
15
|
| Sub Total | 6876 | |||
| MMER (4%)
|
275.04
|
|||
| Total | 7151.04 | |||
| State Share | 2502.86 | |||
| Central Share | 4648.18 | |||
| Committed Central Share | 2453.54 | |||
| Total Central Share | 7101.72 | |||
| Total cost of Project | 9604.58 |
New Interventions:
a. Two schemes of the UGC i.e. ‘Universities with Potential for Excellence’ (UPE) and ‘Colleges with Potential for Excellence’ (CPE) subsumed as the components of ‘Enhancing Quality and Excellence in select State Universities’ and ‘Enhancing Quality and Excellence in Autonomous Colleges’. These targeted interventions in well performing State Public Universities and Autonomous Colleges are meant to bring about significant quality enhancement and improvement in teaching and research.
b. Component on Research and Innovation will focus on fostering innovation, entrepreneurship and employability by creation of 20 Research Clusters in the States. These will be on competitive and challenge mode and will largely emerge from Universities in collaboration with the National Laboratories under D/o Science & Technology/D/o Bio-Technology and industry,
c. The scheme will give priority to the Aspirational Districts, identified by the NITI Aayog. The purpose of such an intervention is to improve access and equity through improved enrolment and retention
d. Creation of National Higher Education Resource Centre (NHERC) to be a resource centre for Research, Policy Advocacy, Capacity Building and providing well-informed policy and evidence based research inputs
e. Components of Institutional Reforms and Restructuring, Capacity Building and Management Information Systems have been merged into one single component ‘Institutional Restructuring, Capacity Building and Reforms’.
f. With a view to ensure greater resource flow to the State Higher Education sector, RUSA 2.0 will encourage States and Institutions to undertake projects in a public-private partnership mode based on viability gap funding. These States would be encouraged to create facilitating mechanisms to ease restrictions for enhancing private investment in the sector.
g. An online virtual platform of infrastructure and equipment (inventory) will be created so that institutions can share these resources.
h. RUSA will enhance ongoing mechanisms for Monitoring and Evaluation and look, at innovative ways of scaling up Monitoring and Evaluation, such as Fund Tracker, Reform Tracker, Bhuvan-RUSA and PFMS, so that projects can be completed by their scheduled lime.
Background:
a. RUSA is an overarching scheme, operated in a mission mode for funding the state universities and colleges in order to achieve the aims of equity, access and excellence. It seeks to improve the overall quality of existing State higher educational institutions by ensuring their conformity to prescribed norms and standards.
b. Transformative reforms such as governance, academic, affiliation and accreditation reforms are pre-requisites in the implementation of the scheme in State higher educational institutions.
c. The funding to States is based on critical appraisal of State Higher Education Plans. These plans are required to address each State’s strategy to address issues of equity, access and excellence in higher education.
d. All funding under the RUSA are norm based and future grants are outcome dependent.
