RUSA

(Rashtriya Ucchatar Shiksha Abhiyan)

Over the years, there has been an unprecedented expansion in number of institutions and volume of students in the country. To take advantage of the demographic dividend, there was a need for a concerted effort which would improve the quality and relevance of higher education and result in an educated and productive workforce.

The XII Plan (2012-17) argued for a holistic approach to higher education with renewed focus on improving the Quality of State institutions, together with addressing the issue of Access and Equity. A strategic shift was needed in several critical areas ranging from issues of access and equity to teaching-learning process, research, governance, funding and monitoring; which could connect funding streams to specific outcomes and desired impact.

In the backdrop of it, a new overarching Centrally Sponsored Scheme for funding State level Institutions was proposed called Rashtriya Ucchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA). It is an umbrella scheme to be operated in a mission mode till March, 2020, which seeks to mainly improve overall quality of existing State higher educational institutions. The scheme is implemented through a set of bodies with clearly defined roles and functions at the National, State and Institutional level.

Over the years, since the allocation to State Higher Education System was not enough, these meagre funds were thinly spread amongst many institutions, impacting the overall quality of infrastructure and teaching. Hence, there was a need to establish a new institutional mechanism, which would make every stakeholder a partner in the process of higher education transformation. The strategic intervention came through a Centrally Sponsored Scheme called RUSA, which has a completely new approach towards funding State higher education Institutions. The allocation of funds under RUSA is based on well-defined norms and parameters and linked to academic, administrative and governance reforms, while future grants are performance based and outcome dependent. The reforms initiated under RUSA aim to build a self- sustaining momentum for greater accountability and autonomy of State institutions and impress upon them the need to improve the quality of higher education.

Indira Gandhi Government College, Tezu is one of the beneficiary higher education institutions in Arunachal Pradesh for the RUSA- 01 scheme to receive Infrastructure Grant. The institution has created/ upgraded the following infrastructure and assets which are being fully utilized by the stakeholders of the institution so far under RUSA- 01: