New Delhi: A parliamentary panel on Wednesday asked the government to increase its spending on higher education to 25 percent of all spending on education in the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17).

"The committee's attention has been drawn to the 12th Plan approach paper which mentions that about 18 percent of all government education spending or 1.12 percent of the GDP be spent on higher education," the panel in its report said.

"The funding should be raised to 25 percent and 1.5 percent respectively," it said.

The panel observed that state universities and colleges affiliated to them which cater to more than 90 percent of enrolments suffer from severe fund constraint. It asked the government to develop a mechanism to check the shortfall of funds.

It also asked the human resource development ministry to allocate more funds for research and development.

"Every education institution should set apart three percent of its budget for research and also industry academia collaboration should be encouraged," it said.

"Higher education being an important sector for development, the committee feels that focused attention in terms of resources and funds should be made available for development of quality research and innovation in this sector," it says. IANS