RUSA funds only for 5 colleges

Thiruvananthapuram: Five autonomous colleges in the state have become eligible for funding under the Rashtriya Uchatar Siksha Abhiyan scheme of the central government.

They are the Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, Ernakulam; Fa-rook College, Kozhikode; St. Joseph’s College, Devagiri, Kozhikode; Mar Athanasius College, Kothamangalam, and Marian College, Idukki.

RUSA is a central government programme launched in 2013 to support aided sector to improve the quality of higher education.

These colleges will be eligible for assistance of Rs 5 crore each. The centre’s share will be  Rs 3 crore. Out of the state sh-are of Rs 2 crore each, the managements will have to mobilise Rs 1.2 crore each as the state finance department wa-nts them to bear 60 percent of the state’s share. The corresponding figure for aided colleges will be 50 percent. 

The colleges selected for the scheme should be above 3.51 grade in the National Assessment and Accreditation Council norm. Hence, only five autonomous colleges became eligible out of the 19 in the state.

Maharaja’s College was left out as its period of accreditation had ended before the RUSA studied the proposal.

 If it had submitted the self-study report (SSR) in time, it would have got six-months’ grace period and been eligible for RUSA funds, sources said. The state government will provide Rs 40 lakh each to 102 aided colleges for developing infrastructure facilities as its component for RUSA.