Education Ministry Issues Guidelines to Establish an Endowment Fund in Central Universities

New Delhi: The Education Ministry has issued the guidelines for all central universities to establish endowment funds in order to encourage mobilizing donations, funds, and contributions from well-wishers, alumni, philanthropists, and industries for the development of the students, faculties and institutions.

The Central government released the guidelines to set up an endowment fund through donations and contributions in an attempt to push central universities to raise funds independently.

Initially, IIT Delhi was the first in India to set up an alumni endowment fund in 2019 and the same was followed by many other IITs and IIMs .

According to the Ministry's guidelines for the Central University endowment fund that the Ministry sent to "all university vice-chancellors," the endowment fund will be governed by a seven-member CUEF board.

The CUEF board will be made up of the university's vice chancellor, a finance officer, two professors from various departments, and three donors chosen by the Executive Council for a three-year term.

The guidelines state that the donations should be invested for their intended purposes and that separate bank accounts should be opened and maintained for them.

The Board will further decide how the funds will be used before presenting the report to the university's finance committee meeting.

Further, the guidelines stated that a reasonable percentage, not to exceed 50% may be expended annually with a view to maintaining a good fund.

The central universities will then need to establish an inspirational value for the corpus fund to be mobilised in accordance with their alumni strength, average alumni pay, and potential for donation mobilisation.

In accordance with the ministry's guidelines, the institutions may open FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) accounts to receive donations from abroad.

However, the university will need approval from the relevant authorities or ministry in order to accept donations from abroad.

In addition, the education ministry urged the institutions to post information about the CUEF and its use on their official portals in order to inform those who are interested.

Read More:

Subscribe to Collegedunia to get the latest educational news and updates –