University Grants Commission (UGC) - Introduction
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has its roots in the University Grants Committee, which was constituted in the year 1945 on the recommendation of Sargeant Report. To monitor the work of three Central Universities of the country- Aligarh, Benaras and Delhi. However, after two years, the committee was given the charge of all the existing universities in the country.
In 1948, University Education Commission set up under the chairmanship of Dr. S Radhakrishnan, recommended the reconstitution of University Grants Committee on the general model of the University Grants Commission of the United Kingdom with a full-time Chairman and other members to be appointed from amongst the educationists of repute. Thereafter the University Grants Commission was formally inaugurated by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the then Minister of Education, Natural Resources and Scientific Research, on 28 December 1953.
However the UGC got the status of statutory body of the Indian Government through an act of Parliament in November 1956. The UGC since then has been co-ordinating, determining and maintaining standards of university education and teaching in the country.
The Commission has its head office at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg in New Delhi while the regional offices are situated in six different parts of the country - Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bhopal, Guwahati and Bangalore. The two additional bureaus carry out the work from 35, Feroze Shah Road and the South Campus of University of Delhi.