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Development of Education System

Notes Right from the early times India has been an important seat of learning. Universities like
Nalanda, Taxila and Vikramshila have attracted students not only from various parts of the
country but it have also brought in large number of students from countries in and around
India. Till today India has remained a great seat of higher education and many students come
down to India to study on various subjects throughout the year. The first attempt to begin a
national level educational system in India had begun in the year 1944. The Central Advisory
Board of Education recommended the formation of a University Grants Commission in the
year 1944. The University Grants Commission or UGC was formed in the year 1945 and was
assigned the responsibility of looking into the working of the Banaras Hindu University and
the Delhi and Aligarh Universities as well. In the year 1947, the University Grants Commission
or the UGC was assigned the responsibility of looking into the working of all the existing
universities of the country at that time.
13.1.1 History of University Grants Commission or UGC
As soon as India got her Independence, in the year 1952 a University Education Commission
was set up which recommended that the University Grants Commission be remodelled according
to the University Grants Commission of the United Kingdom with a full time Chairman and
the other members of the Commission should be recruited from educationists of repute.
The Commission also decided that all issues relating to the allocation of public funds to the
Central Universities and other educational institutes of higher learning should be referred to
the UGC and it was decided that the opinion of the UGC in this regard would be considered
final. Finally in the year 1953, the University Grants Commission was re-inaugurated by Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad, the then Minister of Education, Natural Resources and Scientific Research on
28th of December 1953.
Finally the UGC was established as a statutory organ of the government in November 1956
through an Act of Parliament. The commission has been assigned the duties of coordination,
determination and maintenance of standards of university education in India. In order to bring
about effective region-wise working of the commission throughout the country, the UGC has
decentralised its operations by setting up six regional centres at Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata,
Bhopal, Guwahati and Bengaluru. The head office of the UGC is located at Bahadur Shah Zafar
Marg in New Delhi.
13.1.2 Initiatives by UGC

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has its Regional Offices at Hyderabad, Pune, Bhopal,
Kolkata, Guwahati and Bangalore. The Northern Regional Office which was earlier located at
Ghaziabad has now been functioning from the UGC Head Quarters as Northern Regional
Colleges Bureau (NRCB). The UGC has taken up some new initiatives, viz.
• Promotion of Entrepreneurship and knowledge based enterprises.
• Protection of Intellectual Property Rights.
• Promotion of Indian Higher Education abroad.
• Training and development of Academic Administrators.
• Comprehensive Computerisation Initiative.
13.1.3 Unversity Grants Commission (UGC) - Activities
Activities and Programmes to realize its aim of determining and maintaining the educational
standards of the university, the University Grants Commission -
• Allocates grants to the universities and colleges out of its own funds for their development
or other general purpose.
• Advises the central and state government on disbursing grants to the universities out of
the Consolidated Fund of India.
• Advises any authority on the establishment of new university or on the proposal seeking
expansion of any university.

120 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY