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The financial assistance for courses in science stream was Rs. 7 lakh, Rs. 5 lakh for courses in arts and Rs. 5 lakh for courses in commerce streams.

The 10th Plan period of the UGC that began in 2003 was crucial in many ways for the council. Several meetings of the UGC Experts Committee were held for sanction of grants to the colleges.

During 2004-05 and 2005-06, the UGC Experts Committee meetings were held to clear the grants sanctioned under the 10th Plan to the left out colleges. All the left out colleges and new colleges were sanctioned grants for undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

According to the annual report for 2005-06 academic year presented during the university’s Academic Council meeting recently, during the academic year, UGC sanctioned add-on-courses to six colleges affiliated to the university in lieu of the vocational courses which were in existence since 1994.

A total of 11 colleges were sanctioned add-on-courses. All the 11 colleges have started the courses parallel to the existing undergraduate courses from 2005-06. Of the 11 colleges, six were granted courses under the science stream, four under arts and four under commerce streams.

The financial assistance for courses in science stream was Rs. 7 lakh, Rs. 5 lakh for courses in arts and Rs. 5 lakh for courses in commerce streams. However, the UGC recently, in its modified guidelines, has earmarked assistance to each course instead of the stream.

The report added that the directorate, as per UGC guidelines, got the course and syllabus approved from the university’s Academic Council with directions to conduct the examinations. The directorate has conducted add-on-course supervisory committee meeting as well as the meeting with principals and course coordinators of the colleges running the courses to give directions to be followed for the smooth functioning of the courses as well as to get feedback about the course from the colleges. The first batch will be coming out in 2006-07 academic year.

The Academic Council report said that six colleges of the university were recommended to the UGC under the scheme of colleges with potential for excellence. In this connection, UGC had short-listed some colleges and invited them for an interface meeting to New Delhi. As on date, two colleges – St. Joseph’s College and Jyothi Nivas College – are enjoying the status of the said scheme.

During the same academic year, the council recommended eight major research projects to the UGC.

The identified college teachers will be invited by the UGC for an interactive meeting before it decides to sanction grants to carry out research activities in their respective colleges.

The report added that the directorate recommended 42 minor research project proposals of college teachers and 66 proposals of the colleges seeking financial assistance to host seminars, conferences, workshops and so on to the UGC. Of them, 26 proposals for minor research projects and 18 proposals to conduct seminars, conferences and so on were approved.

As many as 19 proposals were recommended to UGC seeking financial assistance to establish UGC network at the colleges and of them, the proposal of nine colleges were approved and grants were released. During the said period, two colleges were given special development grants for colleges in backward areas by the UGC. Four college teachers were given grants under visually handicapped persons scheme.

Overall, in 2005-06 academic year, the directorate managed to get grants amounting to Rs. 6.49 crore to the colleges, according to the Academic Council report.

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