The University Grants Commission (UGC) has approved a budget allocation of Tk 84.85 billion (8,485.12 crore) for 46 public and government universities for the fiscal year 2020-21.
Of the total allocation, the UGC allocated a revenue budget of Tk 5,4.54 billion and a development budget of Tk 3,0.31 billion in support of 53 projects.
In the outgoing fiscal year of 2019-20, the UGC approved a budget of Tk 80.88 billion for the country’s public universities.
This year's allocation in the revenue budget has been increased by 5.0 per cent, said the UGC in a press statement on Wednesday.
The budget was approved at the 158th full commission meeting of the UGC held on Wednesday chaired by the UGC Chairman Kazi Shahidullah.
The meeting was held online because of the emerging coronavirus situation, and the budget was presented at the meeting by Prof Muhammad Alamgir, in charge of Finance and Accounts Department of UGC.
UGC annually approves the yearly budget for conducting higher education activities in public universities.
Dhaka University has received the highest revenue budget in the upcoming fiscal year of 2020-21 with amount of Tk 8.3 billion (830 crore).
About Tk 660 million has been allocated for the research purpose at the public universities in the fiscal year of 2020-21 which is a 03 per cent higher than the outgoing fiscal year with an allocation of Tk 640 million.
Meanwhile, the commission has approved a Tk 620 million for its own as budget allocation which was about 530 million in the fiscal year of 2019-20, according to the UGC budget session.
Besides, the UGC in the meeting has decided to send a letter to the government asking for special allocation for conducting online classes in public universities.
nsrafsanju@gmail.com