With bulk of enrollment in higher and technical education taking place in universities and colleges supported by the states, the government is planning to fund the states directly, instead of allocating money to individual institutes.

Both the ministry of human resource development (HRD) and the Planning Commission are mulling new ways of funding the state-run institutes ? which often complain of paucity of funds. Currently, the Centre funds the state-run institutes individually through the University Grants Commission (UGC) in stages, but under the new system, states would be funded as a whole.

The new system aims to increase the funding to state universities and colleges from R7,600 crore in the 11th Plan to more than R25,000 crore in the 12th Plan (2012-17) period.

?There is a consensus that state universities and colleges get little support from the Centre. We are mulling a model wherein states will be looked at as a collection of institutions ? both state universities and colleges ? compared with the present system, wherein UGC gives piecemeal funding to institutions case by case. We are also thinking that allocation for each university should be specified at once,? said a Planning Commission official. In fact, the HRD ministry has proposed norms-based funding of UGC schemes so that there is better coordination between the commission and states.

At present, the higher education system in India comprises more than 556 universities, including 43 central, 289 state, 73 private, 130 deemed-to-be universities and close to 31,324 colleges. Around 14.6 million students are enrolled in the higher education sector and an additional capacity of about 25 million seats would be required over the next decade to cater to the increased demand.

Till sometime back, of the total colleges under the UGC purview, only about 6,000 (less than half) were recognised, making them eligible for development grants from the UGC. The rest were not recognised as they did not meet the criteria of permanent affiliation. In 2007, only 167 out of 224 state universities were recognised while the rest are not able to quality for recognition under this section for they fail to meet the minimum prescribed academic requirements and, thus, are deprived of the development assistance from the UGC.

?More than 80% of the enrolments in higher education happen in state universities, which have funds enough to give salaries to their staff, but hardly for expansion. Under the new scheme, the ministry would pay greater attention to such institutes,? said an education expert from the industry.

The planning commission official added that with the change in pattern of funding, the UGC?s role in monitoring the expansion of education in states would increase.