Higher Education Commission of India Bill, 2025

Why in News?

The Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill, 2025, has been listed for introduction in the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament.

• Aim - To establish HECI as the sole authority responsible for coordinating and determining standards in higher education, research, and scientific and technical institutions nationwide.
• Single unified regulator - The Bill will merge 3 existing regulators
  • The University Grants Commission (UGC),
  • The All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and
  • The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) into a unified, central body.

Currently, the UGC regulates non-technical higher-education institutions in India, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE regulates teacher education.

• Alignment with NEP, 2020 - The proposed HECI will be responsible for
  • Regulation,
  • Accreditation,
  • Funding and
  • Setting professional/academic standards for higher education across many institutions.
• 4 verticals under HECI –
  • The National Higher Education Regulatory Council to regulate all fields except medical and legal education;
  • The National Accreditation Council as an accrediting body;
  • The General Education Council to frame learning outcomes; and
  • The Higher Education Grants Council for funding.
• Accreditation Oversight- Ensuring that universities and colleges meet national academic standards.
• Professional Standards- Setting benchmarks for teaching, curriculum design, and research quality.
• Funding Autonomy - Financial management will stay with the administrative ministry, separating regulatory oversight from funding decisions.
• Exclusions/scope boundaries - Certain professional education sectors like medical and law colleges will not be brought under HECI’s regulatory ambit for now, they will remain under existing sectoral regulators.
• Institutional simplification and streamlining approvals - The goal is to reduce duplication of regulatory bodies, reduce overlapping approvals and processes, and bring uniformity in regulation and accreditation standards.
• It also makes governance more streamlined for higher education institutions across disciplines.

Reference

The Indian Express | Higher Education Commission of India Bill 2025