Centre seeks public feedback to scrap UGC

NEW DELHI: The Human Resource Development Ministry is working on a proposal to restructure the University Grants Commission (UGC) by repealing its Act of 1956 and replacing it with a new law that downsizes the higher education regulator’s scope, including stripping the Commission of its funding role. The draft Act proposes to re-christen UGC as the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) and the regulator, in its new avatar, will only focus on setting, maintaining and improving academic standards in universities.

The ministry will take over UGC’S grant-giving function. The government made the draft law public on Wednesday and has sought feedback by July 7.

“Just like how the ministry funds all technical institutes like the IITS, NITS and IISERS and the AICTE focuses on maintaining standards, the government can easily take over funding of central universities. We want to downsize the regulator’s role. There won’t be any interference in the management issues of educational institutions,” said a ministry official.

The HECI Act, 2018 is expected to be tabled in Parliament in the upcoming monsoon session beginning July 18. Given that the tenure of the Modi government is coming to an end, it would be very challenging for the ruling party to get a fresh bill passed in the session, which is set to be stormy.

According to the draft bill, the HECI would get more penal powers to order the closure of institutes that violate set norms, the imposition of fines where necessary and provisions for imprisonment up to three years where necessary.

The proposed Act would be applicable for all higher educational institutions established under an Act of the Parliament, but the institutions of national importance, such as IITS, IIMS, NITS, IIITS, IISER, IISC, would not come within its purview.

As per the proposal, the commission will have a chair- person, vice-chairperson and 12 other members to be appointed by the Central government, while the secretary of the commission will act as its member-secretary.

According to HRD officials, the new body would not subsume the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) as was initially envisaged as there were concerns over cadre merger and other technical issues.

This decision would be crucial for over 40,000 colleges in which above 3.57 crore students get enrolled for higher education.

The UGC and its regulatory regime have been criticised by many committees and their reports for its restrictive and suffocating processes.