The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry on Wednesday announced that it has prepared a draft bill to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC) with a Higher Education Commission of India.
Hindustan Times reports that the focus of the new Higher Education Commission of India would be solely on academic matters.
HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar took to Twitter to announce this decision.
“Under the leadership of PM @narendramodi has embarked on a process of reforms of the regulatory agencies for better administration of the HE sector. In a landmark decision, a draft Act for repeal of #UGC & setting up #HECI (Higher Education Commission of India) has been prepared (sic),” he tweeted.
The draft Act is in accordance with the commitment of govt for reforming the regulatory systems that provide more autonomy to HE institutes to promote excellence & facilitate holistic growth of the education system. #SaafNiyatSahiVikas #48MonthsofTransformingIndia @ugc_india
— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) June 27, 2018
“The transformation of the regulatory set up is based upon the principles - Minimum government & Maximum governance, Separation of grant functions, End of inspection raj, Focus on academic quality, Powers to enforce,” Javadekar adds in another tweet.
The HT report also states that this act will for the first time give power to the regulators to enforce academic quality standards and to close down substandard and bogus institutions. It is likely to be tabled in the upcoming Monsoon Session of the Parliament.
A senior official told Hindustan Times that the decision was taken since presently the UGC is involved with disbursing funds to institutions, other areas such as quality measures are left incomplete.
The Ministry has invited comments and suggestions from educationists and stakeholders on the same till July 7.
Read the full draft here.