The UGC has the unique distinction of being the only grant-giving agency in the country which has been vested with two responsibilities: that of providing funds and that of coordination, determination and maintenance of standards in institutions of higher education.

The UGC's mandate includes:

· Promoting and coordinating university education.

· Determining and maintaining standards of teaching, examination and research in universities.

· Framing regulations on minimum standards of education.

· Monitoring developments in the field of collegiate and university education; disbursing grants to the universities and colleges.

· Serving as a vital link between the Union and state governments and institutions of higher learning.

· Advising the Central and State governments on the measures necessary for improvement of university education.

Schemes

The follwoing schemes are being implemented by the regional offices

Development of Colleges affiliated to State Universities
Minor Research Projects for College teachers.
Autonomous Colleges
Seminar/Symposia/Conference etc. for colleges
Construction of Women's Hostel (Special scheme)
Award of Teacher Fellowship to College Teachers for doing M.Phil/Ph.D.
Financial assistance to Teachers - Visually Handicapped (Blind)

The details of the regional office viz. the States assigned to each regional office are given below :

1. Southern Eastern Regional Office (SERO)
Location: Hyderabad
Date of Establishment: 20.09.1994
Total number of Colleges: 668
States Covered: Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry, Andman & Nicobar and Tamil Nadu

2. Western Regional Office (WRO)
Location: Pune
Date of Establishment: 11.11.1994
Total number of Colleges: 996
States Covered: Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Dadar & Nagar Haveli, Daman and Deu

3. Central Regional Office (CRO)
Location: Bhopal
Date of Establishment: 01.12.1994
Total number of Colleges: 791
States Covered: Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan

4. Northern Regional College Bureua (NRCB)
Location: Delhi
Total number of Colleges: 922
States Covered: Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh

5. North-Eastern Regional Office (NERO)
Location: Guwahati
Date of Establishment: 01.04.1995
Total number of Colleges: 253
States Covered: Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland

6. Eastern Regional Office (ERO)
Location: Kolkata
Date of Establishment: 03.09.1996
Total number of Colleges: 1009
States Covered: West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Sikkim

7. South-Western Regional Office (SWRO)
Location: Bangalore
Date of Establishment: 25.04.1999
Total number of Colleges: 714
States Covered: Kerala, Karnataka and Lakshadweep

Inter University Centres (IUC)

The UGC has been setting up autonomous centres, from 1984, when the first one was established to provide common facilities for research, and for various services and programmes to the universities, since heavy investment in infrastructure and input is beyond the reach of the individual university to obtain these facilities. The following is one of the inter-university centres have been established :

Inter University Accelerator Centre (formerly -Nuclear Science Centre)

The Inter University Accelerator Centre
Post Box No. 10502
Aruna Asaf Ali Marg,
New Delhi - 110 067.

Inter University Accelerator Centre was the first Inter-University Centre to be established by the UGC in 1984. The primary objective of the Centre is to establish within the university system a world class facilities for accelerator based research. Its aim is to formulate common research programmes of research and development in collaboration with universities, IITs and other research institutions. It promotes group activities and human research development in experimental science and other branches of knowledge.

Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astro-Physics (IUCAA)

Inter University Centre
For Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune
Post Bag 4, Ganeshkhind,
Pune - 411 007.

Information IUCAA, Pune was set up in 1988 as an autonomous centre of excellence to help initiate nurture and grow initiate research and developmental activities in Astronomy and Astrophysics in the University sector. IUCAA was set up with the basic purpose of providing advanced centralized facilities for subjects not adequately covered in the university departments and colleges.

UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research (1989)

UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research , Indore
University Campus,
Khandawa Road,
Indore - 452 017 (M P).

UGC-DAE was created in the year 1990 with the broad objective of developing competence and promoting research in front line areas of science and technology in Indian Universities by providing institutional frame work for optimum utilisation of major research facilities established by the department of Atomic Energy such as Dhruv Reactor of Mumbai, VECC at Kolkata and Synchrotron Radiation Sources at Indore. The facilities of IUC can be availed by scientists from any university.

Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC) (1991)

Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC)
Aruna Asaf Ali Marg,
New Delhi - 110 067.

Consortium of Educational Communication, New Delhi, employs media communication to cater to the needs of higher education in the country. Educational programmes are produced by Educational Media Research Centres (EMRCs) and Audio Visual Research Centres (AVRCs) located at various higher educational institutes in the country. These programmes are telecast on Doordarshan and Gyandarshan Channels

Information and Library Network INFLIBNET

Information and Library Network Centre(INFLIBNET)
(established in a project made in 1991 and incorporated as a Society in 1996)
INFLIBNET
Near Gujarat University Guest House,
Post Box No. 4116,
Navrangpura Ahmedabad - 380 009

An Inter-University Centre of UGC the INFLIBNET serves towards modernization of Libraries, serves as Information Centre for transfer and access of information, supporting scholarships and learning and academic pursuits through a National Network of Libraries in around 264 Universities, Colleges and R &D Institutions across the country.

Inter University Centre for International Studies

Osmania University Campus Hyderabad.

The UGC has established Inter-University Centres (IUCs) for centrally providing state-of-the-art equipment & facilities for the benefit of researchers working in different universities. So far, these IUCS have been established mainly in the filed of science and technology. The UGC now proposes to establish the first IUC in the field of Humanities and Social Science by taking over academic and physical infrastructure available at Indo-American Centre for International Studies.

The proposed IUC would be providing dynamic and vibrant platform for academicians from India, SAARC region, Central Asian and other countries. The main objective of the IUC would be to address contemporary development issues with multi disciplinary approach in the following areas.

1. Education, Commerce, Economics of development of these countries along with the interface with the developed countries.

2. World trade, GATS, IPR, financial management for international understanding.

3. Conflict management, diplomacy, development and peace initiatives between various countries.

4. Human rights, human values, life skills and learning to live together.

5. Art, literature and other allied areas.

National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC)

National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC)
P.O. Box. No. 1075, Nagarbhavi
Bangalore - 560 072.

National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) was established by the UGC in September 1994 at Bangalore for evaluating the performance of the Universities and Colleges in the Country. NAAC's mandate includes the task of performance evaluation, assessment and accreditation of universities and colleges in the country. The philosophy of NAAC is based on objective and continuous improvement rather than being punitive or judgmental, so that all institutions of higher learning are empowered to maximize their resources, opportunities and capabilities. Assessment is a performance evaluation of an institution and /or its units and is accomplished through a process based on self-study and peer review using defined criteria. Accreditation refers to the certification given by NAAC which is valid for a period of five years. At present the Assessment and Accreditation by NAAC is done on a voluntary basis.

National Facilities

The UGC has established 4 National Facilities Centre in the selected universities as per details given below:-

1. Western Regional Instrumentation Centre, Mumbai
This Centre was established by University Grants Commission in 1978 under the administrative control of Mumbai University with the obective to provide training to USIC staff and students for proper use and maintenance of instruments conducting advanced study programmes such as workshops, seminars for teachers, Research workers from University, National Laboratories and industries etc.
http://www.wricmumbai.org/

2. M.S.T. Radar Facilities, Sri Venkateshwar University, Tirupati
The University Grants has established a centre for MST Radar application in the Physics Department SU University, Tirupati in 1990 to utilize the National MST Radar facilities created at Gadanki by the Researchers and Scientists in Indian Universities.
http://www.isro.org/nmrf/

3. Inter University Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences IUCHSS, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla
The main objectives of the Centre are to invite teachers form universities and colleges to the institute as associate of the IUC, organise "Research Seminars" for researchers and young teachers in University and Colleges and to organize "Study weeks" for discussing important problems of National and international interest.
http://www.iias.org/index.html

4. Crystal Growth Centre, Anna University, Madras
This centre was established in 1982 with the following objectives.

a. To develop facilites for growth and growth and characterization of crystal of technological and industrial importance.

b. To bridge the gap between needy industries and Lab. Res.

c. To cater the needs of various institutions in India with regard to requirements of special crystal for Research etc.
http://www.annauniv.edu/cgc.html

Research Facilities

The development of research facilities in the sciences have been quite substantial although not adequate in the last fifty years in the country. However, most of the modern facilities are located in the National Laboratories and the IITs. The Universities have very little infrastructure and modern research equipment and this has hampered the growth of research and consequently human resource development in the universities.

In the recent past, some action has been taken to rectify this situation. The creation of the Inter University Centres and the Inter University Consortiums are efforts in that direction.

Of the IUCs, Nuclear Science Centre has developed state of the art in-house facilities for research in the areas of accelerator based physics and Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics has provided the university users facilities for research in Astronomy and astrophysics. Under the MoU between UGC and DAE the facilities of the Department of Atomic Energy are accessible to the university users through the IUC-DAEF.

One of the schemes which has proved successful in ensuring that the facilities at NSC are maximally utilised, is the UGC Funded User Project (UFUP) through which faculty and students are supported for travel and fellowship once their work proposals are accepted by the User Committee. This has allowed individual researchers from remotest parts of the country to come to NSC and perform experiments and conduct their research.

Since a good number of equipment and facilities are with the National laboratories, it is felt that a similar scheme to support the university users to go and use these facilities should be put in place. This entails a very modest investment of funds and would go a long way in alleviating the lack of facilities in the universities and also ensure that these costly equipment are maximally utilised.

There are several institutions under the departments of Atomic Energy (DAE), Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Institute of Technologies, which are quite well endowed with modern scientific equipment. These equipments, of course, were procured for their internal use in the respective institutions. However, the internal usages do not require many of these to be operational round the clock. Thus there exists a scope for users from the University sector to utilise these facilities, if funding for their travel, contingency, etc. is provided. Each of these facilities then has the potential to become an Inter-University facility.

The UGC already has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Atomic Energy which would allow the university researchers access to the facilities in the DAE laboratories. Similar MoUs may be worked out with the other scientific departments like CSIR and DRDO.

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