Higher Education Commission of India Bill

Why in news?

The draft Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill is now in the public domain.

What is the bill on?

It proposes to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC) with a Higher Education Commission of India.
This is to provide for more autonomy and facilitate holistic growth of this sector.
It is also to offer greater opportunities to Indian students at more affordable cost.
The new commission will cover all fields of education.
This is however except medical, agriculture and institutions set up under Central and State Acts.
The exemption does not cover institutes of national importance.

What are the provisions?

The HECI will be bestowed with comprehensive and overriding powers.
This includes ordering the closure of institutions, in all academic and related matters.

The grant-giving function will be by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) directly.

What is the need?

Multiple regulators - The regime of multiple regulators started in the mid-1980s.
Various professional bodies also started asserting themselves as regulators from early 1990s.
It marked a galloping growth of the education sector with the setting up of many private universities.

Multiple bodies in addition to the existing ones came in to cope with the increasing complexity.
E.g. UGC, All India Council for Technical Education, professional bodies like the Bar Council of India and Council of Architecture.
Quality - The heavy hands of multiple regulators have not yielded the desired dividends.
Uneven and deteriorating standards in the quality of student output was witnessed.
This was against the requirements of the job market.
It is in this context that the need for a single regulatory body arose.

Source: The Hindu