Bengaluru: The development funds released by the state government for universities have been halved in just two years.According to the Higher Education Department, Rs 41 crore was released as grants for the development of universities in 2023-24. However, it was reduced to Rs 30 crore in 2024-25, further falling to Rs 20 crore in 2025-26.There are 32 public universities in Karnataka. The Higher Education Department said that universities are autonomous institutions and they need to raise resources internally.During the ongoing legislature session, Higher Education Minister MC Sudhakar said: “The money collected from internal resources should be used as development funds. At present, more than 50% of the internal resources are spent on guest lecturers, outsourced staff and temporary teaching and non-teaching posts. This is beyond the sanctioned limit. Instead, the university should spend more on development. The university has to bear the expenses from internal resources.“While staff salaries are covered by the government, universities need funds to pay guest faculty and outsourced staff. The Minister informed that currently, a request is being made to fund the salaries of outsourced employees also.Many universities said that they were not receiving any development funds in the last few years. “Most universities, including ours, depend on affiliation fees from colleges, examination and tuition fees and research funds from various sources,” said a university vice-chancellor.It may be recalled that when some universities were unable to fund pension distribution, the government had to release some funds recently to meet the shortfall.