Budget 2026: Higher education outlay up 11%; Rs 200 crore for PM Research Chairs; PM USHA sees 55% cut in RE

Higher Education Budget 2026: The higher education department’s allocation in the union budget 2026-27, presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday, is Rs 55,727.22 crore – 11% higher than its outlay for the current year.

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However, as the documents show, some schemes have seen increases after massive cuts in the current year. The Pradhan Mantri Uchhatar Siksha Yojana (PM-USHA), a scheme supporting state-run higher education institutions, the budget estimate has seen a marginal increase to Rs 1,850 crore for the next year, but only after a massive cut in the revised estimate for 2025-2026 – its outlay was slashed to less than half, from Rs 1,815 crore to just Rs 800 crore.

Similarly, the Prime Minister Research Fellowship (PMRF) had its budget revised to Rs 290 crore, less than half of its outlay of Rs 600 crore. The allocation for the 2026-27 financial year remains at Rs 600 crore. The PM One-Nation-One-Subscription (PM ONOS), an initiative to provide access to high-quality academic journals, makes an entry, first in the RE for the current year with an allocation of Rs 2,023.25 crore; it gets Rs 2,200 crore as BE for the next.

This year there were no new announcements of institutions directly under the Ministry of Education, but presenting her 9th consecutive budget, Sitharaman announced one new National Institute of Design; three new National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) and upgrade of the seven existing ones; one National Institute of Hospitality; and five university townships in the vicinity of major industrial and logistical corridors.

The education ministry’s higher education department has also got Rs 200 crore to set up Prime Minister Research Chairs, discussed in the last Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Council meeting . Sitharaman also announced that one girls’ hostel will be set up for STEM students in every district, funded through “viability gap funding”. However, for the PM Girls hostel scheme there is no allocation for the upcoming financial year. The revised budget in 2025-26 stands at Rs.10 crore.

Similarly the World Class Institution scheme has seen a massive increase to Rs.900 crore, from Rs. 475.12 crore in 2025-26. The revision however, was at Rs.900 crores itself.

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Though the government is in the process of replacing them with Vikshit Bharat Shiksha Adhisthan (VBSA) , higher education regulators, University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has all seen their allocations rise for the next financial year.

In her speech, Nirmala Sitharaman also proposed a high-powered ‘Education to Employment and Enterprise’ Standing Committee which will suggest measures to boost the services sector. One of its functions will be to "assess the impact of emerging technologies, including AI, on jobs and skill requirements and propose measures thereof".

What is the higher education budget of India?

Higher education has seen an allocation of Rs 55,727.22 crore for the 2026-27 financial year, an increase from Rs 50,077.95 crore from the previous budget. The revised budget was Rs 51,381.67 crore.

Overall the education sector's budget allocation stands at Rs 1,39,289.48 crore, up from Rs 1,28,650.05 crore in the 2025-26 budget, an increase of 8.2%.

Education Budget 2026: UGC, AICTE see hikes

Though marginal, budget allocations to regulatory bodies under the education ministry have seen an increase. For UGC, the allocation now stands at Rs 3,709 crore as against Rs 3,470 crore in the revised outlay. Though it has improved since the massive cut in 2024-25 to Rs 2,500 crore, the allocation earlier used to be much higher – highest being in 2023-24 at Rs 5,360 crore.

This year, AICTE allocation has increased to Rs 230 crore, as against the Rs 200 crores in 2025-26, while the revised budget for the financial year was Rs 220 crore.

Among the institutions, the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Indian Institute of Science and Education Research (IISER) and Indian Institute of Science (IISC) have seen cuts.

In case of Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) the allocation may have increased but a significant part of it – Rs 149.89 crore and Rs 60 crore – is for the repayment of the principal and interest of Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA) loan respectively.

Indira Gandhi National Open University has seen an increased allocation of Rs 160 crore from Rs 147 crore in 2025-26. The revised budget was Rs150.50 crore.

In case of School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) the increase has been a meagre, 0.6 percentage to Rs.169.06 crores.

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Budget 2026 Education: PM-USHA, RUSA

For Rashtriya Uchhatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), now named Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (PM-USHA), the allocation has increased to Rs 1,850 – a marginal increase from Rs 1,815 crore in 2025-26.

A centrally-sponsored scheme, PM USHA – and RUSA before it – supports state higher and technical education institutions.

The budget document also shows that in the financial year 2024-25, the actual budget utilisation was just Rs 357.83 crore, as against the Rs 1,814.94 crore.

Higher Education Budget 2026: PMRF, PM-USP

At Rs 2,160 crore, there was no change in allocations for student financial aid schemes in the 2026-27 budget. The schemes under it include the PM Uchchatar Shiksha Protsahan (PM-USP) Yojna and the PM Research Fellowship (PMRF) .

For PM-USP Yojana, the allocation stands at Rs 1,560 crore and for PM Research Fellowship , Rs 600 crore. In case of PM fellowship the revision was just Rs 290 crore as against Rs 600 allocation in 2025-26.

The Multidisciplinary Education and Research Improvement in Technical Education (MERITE) scheme saw the highest allocation of Rs 300 crore. In 2025-26, the allocation was of Rs 220 crore, but the revised budget was again a meagre Rs 47.55 crore. The scheme is supported by the World Bank.

Similarly, the Scheme for Transformational and Advanced Research in Sciences (STARS), which aims to integrate science education and research, has received Rs 40 crore, similar to the current financial year. Here the revised budget was a little more than half at Rs 25 crore.

For the budget for Impacting Research Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT), a pan-IIT and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) joint research initiative, there has been no allocation for the second consecutive year. The last allocation for the scheme in 2024-25 was Rs 2.50 crore.

The Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) which facilitates academic and research collaborations between Indian and foreign institutions has received an outlay of Rs 55 crore, a marginal increase from Rs 50 crore in 2025-26. The revision was Rs 40 crore.

Interestingly, the apprenticeship scheme under the ministry – National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATS) – has seen an increase to Rs 1,250 crore from Rs 1,178 crore. This is the only scheme whose allocation and revision is the same.

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Budget Education 2026: CIIL Mysore, IKS see cuts

The Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, which has been leading the major schemes of the ministry for the promotion of Indian languages, has seen a cut. The 2026-27 allocation stands at Rs 39.26 crore as against Rs 43.50 crore in 2025-26. Here too the revised budget is almost half at 28.90 crore.

Similarly, with the Indian Knowledge System (IKS), a major scheme, the allocation has dropped from Rs 50 crore in 2025-26 to Rs 35 crore. At Rs. 12.45 crore, the revised budget here too is a startling one-fourth.