Introduction of UGC
The University Grants Commission (UGC) was established as an autonomous and statuary institution, under the University Grants Commission Act (1993), to promote, facilitate, support, and enhance the quality of higher education in the country, thereby enabling educational institutions to meet the national need for the educated workforce; it also aims at developing Nepali academia as per the global standard. As one of the outcomes of the political changes in the early 1990s, the UGC was instituted to address the people’s aspirations for revolutionary and qualitative changes in higher education to facilitate the all-round development of the nation. This statuary and autonomous institution also came into existence to solve the problems that had been historically impairing higher education in the county.
Until 1990, the development of higher education was highly constrained as there were only two universities: Tribhuvan University (TU, established in 1959) and Mahendra Sanskrit University (MSU, established in 1986). Both universities could enroll and educate only a fragment of the aspiring population. Additionally, the mandatory inclusion of disadvantaged sections of the society such as women, dalits and other marginalized social groups in higher education was rather a new concept. However, after the successful political revolution and the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990, the inclusive development of higher education has been one of the top priorities of the country. It is in this context that the University Grants Commission (UGC) was established to promote quality higher education in every section of the society and to develop the culture of research in the country.
Objective
Established as an autonomous statutory body under the University Grants Commission Act, 1993, UGC has the following broadly envisioned objectives:
