Under HECI, HRD Ministry will not have fund granting powers

Amid concerns that the new higher education body will add another layer of bureaucracy in the regulation of universities and colleges, the HRD ministry has said that the new entity will not be a bureaucratic body and will focus only on quality education and maintenance of education standards.

Replying to a question in Lok Sabha on Monday, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said that earlier the UGC played both roles of a regulator as well as a grant disbursing authority but now there will be two separate entities comprising of academicians. While one entity will carry out the regulatory function, the other will take care of the funds disbursal aspects. The new grant disbursal entity will not be in HRD ministry. It will be an independent body headed by academicians.

Just last month, the ministry announced its decision to scrap UGC and replace it with a new body called Higher Education Council of India (HECI). The minister said that the much needed higher education reforms have become essential now because the scenario has changed drastically since the establishment of UGC in 1956.

During the period, the number of universities have grown from 20 at the time of establishing UGC to 900 at present, while the number of colleges has grown from 500 to 40,000 and number of students increased from 2 lakh to 3.75 crore.

The draft Higher Education Commission of India Bill, 2018 proposes to enable the Commission to perform its role effectively in attaining standards and enhancing quality in higher education.

The proposed Higher Education Commission of India will focus largely on promoting the quality of academic instruction, maintenance of academic standards and grant of autonomy of higher educational institutions. Draft of the bill has been put in public domain on June 27 for seeking comments and suggestions from educationists, stakeholders and general public before July 20.