The aim of this sub-component is to strengthen the economic and social relevance of university programmes.

To achieve this, the UDGs will support activities to

The UDG sub-projects will be implemented at the university/institution level, under the leadership of the Vice-Chancellor/Director. The UDG will be run in two rounds. The first round will start in 2011 and each sub-project will be for a period of three years. The second round will start at the beginning of the third year of the project (i.e. in 2013) and each sub-project will be implementable over a period of two and half years.

The UDGs in the second round will be accessible only to the universities/institutions having demonstrated a satisfactory level of performance in implementing activities in the first round. Firstly, in order to be eligible for the second round, the universities/institutions should have achieved at least 65% of financial progress of UDG sub-projects in the first round, at the end of the second year. Secondly, the performance of the sub-projects will be assessed by the end of the second year of the first round, against a set of indicators.

All indicators will be annexed to the Performance Contract to be signed by each university/institution with the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE).