NEW DELHI, Dec 12: A bill to set up a higher education regulator which will replace bodies such as the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), was approved by the Union Cabinet on Friday, officials said.
The proposed legislation which was earlier christened the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill has now been re-named Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill. The single higher education regulator was proposed in the new National Education Policy (NEP).
“The bill to set up Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan has been approved by the Cabinet,” an official said. Presently, while the UGC oversees non-technical higher education, the AICTE oversees technical education and the NCTE is the regulatory body for teachers’ education.
The Commission is proposed to be set up as a single higher education regulator, but medical and law colleges will not be brought under its ambit. It is proposed to have three major roles — regulation, accreditation and setting professional standards. Funding, which is seen as the fourth vertical, is not proposed to be under the regulator so far. The autonomy for funding is proposed to be with the administrative Ministry.
The concept of HECI has been discussed before in the form of a draft bill. A draft Higher Education Commission of India (Repeal of University Grants Commission Act) Bill, 2018, which sought to repeal the UGC Act and provided for the setting up of the Higher Education Commission of India, was put in the public domain in 2018 for feedback and consultation with stakeholders.
Renewed efforts to make the HECI a reality were then initiated under Dharmendra Pradhan, who took over as the Union Education Minister in July 2021. Underlining the relevance of a single higher education regulator, the NEP-2020 document says, “The regulatory system is in need of a complete overhaul in order to re-energise the higher education sector and enable it to thrive.”
It adds that the new system should ensure the distinct functions of regulation, accreditation, funding and academic standard setting are performed by distinct, independent and empowered bodies.
A parliamentary panel on education had earlier flagged the proposed HECI to bring all regulators of higher education under one roof, could lead to closure of institutions in rural areas that suffer from infrastructure or faculty shortages and indirectly fuel privatization.
The committee, headed by Rajya Sabha MP Digvijay Singh, had recommended that a simplified hierarchy of regulatory bodies would be more effective. The panel had also suggested that the Education Ministry should ensure that any such unified regulatory body must have adequate representation for all states and there should not be excess centralization.
(Manas Dasgupta)
