TN forms panel to revise block grant to 10 state univs

TN forms panel to revise block grant to 10 state univs

Ragu.Raman@timesofindia.com 04.12.2024

Chennai : In a first step to revive financially struggling state universities, the state higher education department formed a seven-member committee to revise block grant to 10 state universities, including the University of Madras and Madurai Kamaraj University. Block grant is the funding from the state govt to all state universities to cover the salary of the sanctioned posts by the govt. Many state universities are struggling to pay salaries and pensions to their staff and retired staff members due to insufficient funds. 

The committee, headed by secretary (expenditure), will include the commissioner of technical education, commissioner of collegiate education, additional secretary (finance), deputy secretary (universities) of the higher education department, director-general of audit or his representative, and member-secretary of Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education as members. The committee was given three months to determine the revision of block grants from 2025-26. “They will consider staff strength (teaching, non-teaching) sanctioned by govt, income and expenditure trend analysis, net deficit, scale of pay recommended by state pay commission and University Grants Commission and norms on faculty-students ratio,” a govt order issued by higher education secretary K Gopal said. 

“Though govt is not obliged to fund for salary or pension of the university suggesting a framework for sustenance of the universities,” the order added. The committee constituted by the State Planning Commission to evaluate the financial position of state universities recommended revising the block grant once in five years for all state universities. The block grant was previously revised in 2015-16. “The state universities are burdened by pension liabilities. The corpus fund of the University of Madras is not even able to cover 50% of pension liabilities. Other universities like Madurai Kamaraj University are also facing the same problem,” said P Duraisamy, former vice-chancellor of Madras University. “This move may help to resolve the financial crisis to some extent. 

However, they have to form a committee to resolve financial issues of state universities and suggest alternative ways for generating revenue,” he added. The order also asked all registrars of state universities to submit the details for fixing the block grant. State govt is not giving block grant to Anna University and Tamil Nadu Teacher Education University citing surplus revenue. Professors from Anna University said the university’s revenue declined following the decision to give all pass to students who had arrears. “The university used to generate ₹400 crore by conducting arrear exams. Without compensating for the revenue loss, the state govt declared all pass during 2020. We will also meet the fate of other universities if state govt does not give block grants,” said a professor of the university .