The Union Government has approved the continuation of the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) scheme till March 31, 2026 or till further review. The new phase of the scheme is planned to support around 1,600 projects, official sources said on Friday.
The Union Education Ministry stated in a release that the proposal entails an expenditure of Rs 12929.16 crore out of which the Central Share is Rs 8120.97 crore and the State Share is of Rs 4808.19 crore.
Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS). It is an overarching scheme, operating in mission mode for funding the state government universities and colleges to achieve the aims of equity, access and excellence.
The new phase of RUSA targets to reach out to the unserved, underserved areas; remote/ rural areas; difficult geographies; LWE areas; NER; aspirational districts, tier-2 cities, areas with low GER etc., and to benefit the most disadvantaged areas and SEDGs.
The new phase of the scheme has been designed to implement some of the recommendations and aims of the New Education Policy, which suggests some key changes to the current higher education system to revamp and re-energize it and thereby deliver quality higher education, with equity and inclusion.
The ministry stated that under the new phase of the scheme, state governments will be supported for Gender inclusion, Equity Initiatives, ICT, Enhancing employability through vocationalisation & skill upgradation. States will also be supported for creation of new Model Degree Colleges.
State universities will be supported for Multi-Disciplinary Education and Research. Grants will be provided for strengthening both accredited and non-accredited Universities and Colleges for undertaking various activities including teaching-learning in Indian languages.
