GUNTUR: The University Grants Commission (UGC) is encouraging girls in a big way to take up higher education by offering scholarships, according to UGC South Eastern Region Deputy Director S. Jeelani.

Speaking to The Hindu here on Saturday, he said that from this year, the UGC would offer scholarship of Rs.2,000 per month for a period of two years for the toppers of degree courses in their respective colleges for pursuing their masters degree. "This scheme is applicable to single girl child of the parents," he said. Thus people having more than one child are excluded from this scheme.

Hostels for women

The UGC was also encouraging setting-up of hostels for women in all the educationally backward districts. Guntur district is one among them as the literacy level of the district was less than the national average of 65 per cent, he said.

While the neighbouring Tamil Nadu has only two educationally backward districts, Andhra Pradesh has 16 districts under this category. Even in terms of higher education enrolment, State lags behind with only seven per cent. The ideal enrolment in higher education was 50 per cent, he said. The UGC was offering a one-time grant of Rs.10 lakhs to colleges willing to set up hostels for girls, Mr. Jeelani said.

The UGC had also permitted colleges to start parallel career-oriented courses along with the regular degree courses, in its bid to encourage vocationalisation of education at the degree level. "Till now, 35 courses are recognised by the UGC and the response from the students, especially those from the rural areas, is encouraging," he said.

Libraries' networking

The UGC was also working for networking of libraries and classrooms. This would help the colleges access digital library at the click of a mouse. The faculty shortage faced by the students will be addressed when the networking of classrooms takes place, he said.

Colleges should aim for autonomy status in the beginning and should evolve as Deemed Universities, maintaining the stringent quality norms prescribed by the UGC monitoring body, National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). The UGC was also identifying `Colleges with Potential Excellence' and six colleges from the State were already identified, Mr. Jeelani added.

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