DU, JU announce budgets with low research allocations

Dhaka University and Jahangirnagar University yesterday announced their budgets for 2015-16 fiscal with low allocations for research and education.

Our DU correspondent reports, DU syndicate placed its annual budget of Tk 425.5 crore with a low percentage allocated for research and education sectors like the previous year.

For research, Tk 4.5 crore has been allocated which accounts for only 1.06 percent and the education sector has got Tk 50.51 crore, or 11.93 percent of the total budget.

The low allocation will narrow the opportunities of extensive research, said teachers.

The University Grants Commission will provide Tk 371.15 crore while Tk 39 crore will be collected from the university's internal resources. The authorities will face a deficit of Tk 15.35 crore this year as they failed to get the desired amount from the government and due to insufficient internal income.

About 75.33 percent of the budget will be spent for salaries and pensions of teachers, officials and employees. The rest of the budget will be spent for renovation and maintenance of the university infrastructure.

DU Treasurer Prof Kamal said the authorities can consider increasing tuition and other charges to increase the internal income.

Our JU correspondent adds, with only 0.48 percent of money for research, the JU senate sanctioned a Tk 119 crore budget in its 34th annual budget session.

Tk 56.6 lakh was announced for conducting research, which is only Tk 10,000 more than the previous fiscal's.

Treasurer Prof Abul Khaer announced the budget with a deficit of Tk 6.27 crore. He said Tk 106 crore will come from the University Grants Commission and the rest from JU's own fund.

Of the total allocation, Tk 8.67 crore will be spent for examinations, Tk 87.16 lakh for education and the remaining money for salaries of the teachers and staff and other purposes, said the senate sources.