Colleges, varsities must disclose fee structure, refund policy, accreditation, ranking on websites: UGC

New Delhi: The UGC has made it mandatory for universities and higher education institutions to disclose on their websites details of fee structure and refund policy, hostel facilities, scholarships, rankings and accreditation, according to top officials.

The move comes after the higher education regulator observed that the websites of several universities lack not only in providing basic minimum information but many of these are not functional and updated.

Details of patents, foreign and industry collaborations, internal quality assurance cell, internal complaint committee, anti-ragging cell with helpline number, and equal opportunity cell, are also part of a checklist issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Professor M Jagadesh Kumar, Chairman, UGC told IANS, “Of late different stakeholders in the higher education system like prospective students, parents, research scholars, government officials, alumni and the public at large desire to seek certain basic information from the websites of different Universities/HEIs.

“We have found that the websites of several universities lack basic minimum information related to their institute and many times their websites are not functional or updated.

“At this defining moment, when we are celebrating the third year of the National Education Policy 2020, it would be prudent to desire that HEIs provide basic minimum information and updated content on their websites.

“Hence, we have prepared a checklist of this information to be provided by the universities on their websites.”

The UGC has prepared a detailed document on the information that needs to be disclosed on the websites of the HEIs, which it will make public in a few days for feedback. The UGC has sent this document to all institutions.

The document states that the ‘Minimum Mandatory Disclosure’ rule for HEIs will mandate that the institutions have an ‘About us’ page, Act and Statutes or MoA and information regarding the Institutional Development Plan, Annual Reports, Constituent Units, Affiliated Colleges, Off-campus and Off-shore campus.

According to the UGC the universities and colleges will also have to upload details of their accreditation and nation rankings, and have profiles of senior administrative officials like the Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Registrar, etc.