New Delhi: Nudged by the central government to raise funds independently, several central universities (CU) across the country have begun creating their own endowment funds.
An endowment fund is raised by universities with money from alumni this is then channeled towards promoting research or further development of the institution. This is an established concept in premier universities in the West but debuted in India with IIT-Delhi only in 2019.
India has 54 central universities, including the University of Delhi (DU), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), and the Allahabad University.
The endowment fund would be in addition to what the CUs get from the central government — the 2023-24 Union Budget set aside Rs 11,252.56 crore for them.
In 2022, the Ministry of Education issued guidelines to help central universities initiate the process to create endowment funds. This was in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) which encourages universities to look for external sources for funding.
While CUs, by their own admission, have received funds from alumni funds from time to time, there is no formalised process for receiving or spending these funds.
Some of the universities that ThePrint spoke to have been able to gather sizable amounts of funding while others, such as the University of Hyderabad and JNU, are still starting off, expecting better results by next year.
Universities have now started building engagement cells to contact alumni and raise funds. They are making efforts to hold meets and create a transparent process of fund management to garner alumni and donor trust. Heads of institutions are also using their goodwill, interest from local entrepreneurs and community leaders to gather a corpus.
University Grants Commission (UGC) chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar, the head of the regulatory body for higher education institutions (HEIs) in the country, said endowment funds are important as they help universities grow.
“It is crucial for any university, including CUs, to raise funds as it allows them to become financially resourceful, leading to more efficient decision-making for creating new research infrastructure. Funds generated through endowments or other sources can be used to enhance campus infrastructure, research facilities, libraries, and student amenities,” he told ThePrint.
For instance, IIT-Delhi started an endowment fund of Rs 250 crore with the help of donations from alumni in October 2019. Other IITs and IIMs followed suit.
Kumar added that raising resources also allows universities to offer internal research grants and other incentives to faculty members.
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BHU, DU make strides
The Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has made the most significant strides by raising a corpus of Rs 5.24 crore in a little over a year.
“Though BHU used to receive endowments in the past too, it has seen a significant rise in the past one and a half years. We have now streamlined the donations made by alumni, non government organisations and notable industry members,” read a written statement by BHU to the ThePrint.
With these funds, the university has been able to give over 50 new scholarships and several gold medals have been instituted. A fund by the name of Bhagwan Shreyansnath Jain Study Fund has also been set up for teaching and research in mathematical sciences.
Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh told ThePrint that the varsity has raised a corpus upwards of Rs 30 lakh in the last four months.
In 2019, it set up the University of Delhi Foundation, a non-profit company to receive grants and donations from alumni. Though it was initially done to back the university’s Institute of Eminence status, the company has now taken a formal shape.
In an event at the university Friday where DU received funding of Rs 5 lakh, V-C Singh said, “With the formalisation of the endowment fund processes, we will be able to create trust and transparency among alumni and donors.”
He also said that since DU caters to over 3.5 lakh students who attend the university physically, it needs these funds for expansion and maintenance.
Several public sector companies have also shown interest in donating to DU’s funds. For instance, state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is committed to providing a fully-equipped ambulance, said Anil Kumar, a professor in the university’s department of commerce, and chief executive officer of the University of Delhi Foundation.
Baby steps & challenges
Other central universities too have launched initiatives to rope in funds but are yet to see the kind of response that HEIs like the BHU and DU have received.
University of Hyderabad V-C Prof B.J. Rao told ThePrint that the institution did not put enough effort into fund generation as their focus was on empowering and educating the poorest and marginalised students through education. He, however, added, “We have been able to raise a modest amount of a few lakh but we are in the process of rebuilding our alumni network and are aiming to raise an amount of Rs 10 crore by the next year.”
A challenge that several heads of institutions face is the limited spending capacity of their alumni. One of them, wishing to remain anonymous, said, “Although CUs do have significantly well-placed alumni, they often do not have the kind of financial capital that influential alumni from IITs or IIMs do. Their placement packages run in crores and because they are highly-placed, they can bring placements for their alma mater as well.”
“Students in the field of social sciences and humanities — which form a sizable chunk of students at CUs — seldom have this kind of privilege,” he added.
In 2020, M. Jagadesh Kumar, then serving as the V-C of JNU, had set up an alumni endowment fund with an aim to raise a corpus of Rs 100 crore by the end of the year. Three years on, JNU is yet to achieve the feat but plans to revive the initiative are afoot under the leadership of current V-C Santishree Pandit, said serving officials.
However, Professor Kumar was hopeful.
“IITs have built substantial endowments due to their long-standing prominence, strong industry associations, and supportive alumni network. Under the NEP-2020, the CUs are focusing on industry-academia collaboration and are starting new programmes,” he said.
The UGC chairman added, “In the short run, the CUs may face challenges in matching up to the size of the corpus IITs hold. However, I wonder why they cannot catch up with IITs, considering the human resources they have. They can benefit significantly from endowment initiatives and other fundraising efforts.”
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)