UGC to bring Minimum-Mandatory disclosure rule for universities and colleges

Universities and colleges will have to share details related to fee structure, NAAC, NIRF Ranking status, Fee refund policy, Hostel, Fellowships/ Scholarships with details, Internal Complaint Committee, Anti-Ragging Cell with Helpline number and Equal Opportunity Cell

To bring transparency about universities and colleges in the country and prevent students from getting misled, the University Grants Commission is coming up with a regulation on Minimum-Mandatory disclosure.

The UGC has prepared a detailed document on what information needs to be disclosed on the websites of the higher education institutions, which it will make public in a few days for public feedback.

Prof M. Jagadesh Kumar, Chairman, UGC talking about the document said: “Of late different stakeholders in Higher Education System like prospective students, parents, research scholars, govt. officials, alumni and the public at large desire to seek certain basic information from the websites of different Universities/HEIs. We have found that the websites of several universities lack not only in providing basic minimum information related to their university but also at many times their websites are not functional and updated.”

He added that this causes a lot of inconveniences and uncertainty to the stakeholders. “At this defining moment when we are celebrating the third year of National Education Policy 2020 it would be prudent to desire the Universities to provide basic minimum information and updated content on their website. We have prepared a checklist of this information to be provided by the universities on their websites,” said Prof Kumar

As per the document accessed by Shiksha, the Minimum mandatory disclosure for universities and colleges will mandate HEIs to have an about us page, Act and Statutes or MoA, Institutional Development Plan, Annual Reports, Constituent Units/ Affiliated Colleges, Off-campus/Off shore campus.

The HEIs will also have to upload details of their Accreditation/ Ranking (NAAC, NIRF) status, and have profiles of senior administrative officials like Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (wherever applicable), Registrar, etc.

They will also be required to upload details of Academic Programs, Academic Calendar, Schools/Departments/ Centres, Department/School/Centre faculty details with photographs, Admissions & Fee along with other important details.

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