University Grants Commission – Part 1
#GS-02 Education
For Prelims
About University Grants Commission:
The UGC was established in 1953 and was given statutory status in 1956 under UGC Act.
The UGC has its Head Office in New Delhi and six regional offices:
- Bengaluru
- Bhopal
- Guwahati
- Hyderabad
- Kolkata
- Pune
For Mains:
Education system of India:
- The present system of higher education can be traced back to Mountstuart Elphinstone`s minutes of 1823’.
- They stressed on the need for establishing schools for teaching English and the European sciences.
- This was followed by, Lord Macaulay, in his minutes of 1835, advocated “efforts to make natives of the country thoroughly good English scholars”.
- Sir Charles Wood`s Dispatch of 1854, which is commonly known as the ` Magna Carta of English Education in India`, recommended creating a properly articulated scheme of education from the primary school to the university.
- The origin of UGC can be traced back to the Inter-University Board which later came to be known as the Association of Indian Universities.
- The Inter-University Board established in 1925 to promote university activities, by sharing information and cooperation in the field of education, culture, sports and allied areas.
- The first attempt to formulate a national system of education in India came in 1944, with the Report of the Central Advisory Board of Education on Post War Educational Development in India, also known as the Sargeant Report.
- It recommended the formation of a University Grants Committee, which was formed in 1945 to oversee the work of the three Central Universities of Aligarh, Banaras and Delhi.
- Post-independence the University Education Commission was set up in 1948 under the Chairmanship of Dr. S Radhakrishnan “to report on Indian university education and suggest improvements and extensions that might be desirable to suit the present and future needs and aspirations of the country”.
- This committee recommended the setting up of University Grants Commission which was set up in 1953.
Source “New regulations for awarding PhDs“
