The UGC has asked universities across the country to prepare their own plans for seeking grants from the commission for development purpose, a step aimed at granting more autonomy to the varsities.

So far, expert committees deputed by UGC used to visit the universities to assess financial needs of each university based on which funds were allocated.

"The past experience shows us that this procedure invariably resulted in delayed communication of financial allocations to the universities by UGC due to variety of factors," said UGC chairman Ved Prakash in a letter to the vice chancellors.

Citing this as one of the major reasons for discontinuing with the practice, he said the existing procedure led to delayed implementation of programmes and under-utilisation of funds by the varsities.

There from now on "universities will have complete autonomy to prepare its perspective plan and after getting it duly approved by the statutory authorities, it may be submitted to the UGC," Prakash said in his letter.

He also suggested the vice chancellors to prepare proposals for their university under the 12th Five Year Plan Period and submit it to UGC by March 15.