NEW DELHI: The UGC has made it mandatory for universities and higher education institutions to disclose on their websites details of fee structure and refund policy, hostel facilities, scholarships, rankings and accreditation, according to top officials.

The move comes after the higher education regulator observed that several universities’ websites lack basic minimum information and many of these are not functional and updated.

Details of patents, foreign and industry collaborations, internal quality assurance cells, internal complaint committees, anti-ragging cells with helpline numbers, and equal opportunity cells, are also part of a checklist issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

“We have found that the websites of several universities lack not only in providing basic minimum information related to their university but also at many a time their websites are not functional and updated. This causes a lot of inconvenience and uncertainty to the stakeholders.

“At this defining moment when we are celebrating the third year of National Education Policy 2020 it would be prudent to desire the universities to provide basic minimum information and updated content on their website.

We have prepared a checklist of this information to be provided by the universities on their websites,” said UGC chairman Jagadesh Kumar.

Details about the alumni association, ombudsman; constituent units, affiliated colleges, offshore campuses, student grievance redressal committee, socio-economically disadvantaged group cell, CPIO, and appellate authority are also on the mandatory checklist.