No threat to institutional autonomy: Pradhan on Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill

New Delhi, Dec 16 (PTI) Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday dispelled the opposition's concerns that the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025 would undermine institutional autonomy and said the states would retain similar powers as they have presently.

Earlier on Tuesday, Pradhan moved a resolution to refer the Bill proposing to set up a 13-member body for regulating higher education institutions to a joint committee of both Houses of Parliament. The proposal was approved by voice vote in the House.

"There is no threat to institutional autonomy and even if the opposition has some concerns or misconceptions, they can be addressed by the JPC. The powers with the states will remain as they are at present," Pradhan said at a press conference.

Talking about funding concerns, Pradhan explained that in the present prevalent systems of funding to higher education institutions (HEIs), the government of India disburses grants to the central universities through the University Grants Commission (UGC).

"The government also disburses grants directly to institutions of national importance on a monthly basis. Considering that the NEP, 2020 also envisions that the function of funding should be segregated from the councils performing the functions of academic standard setting, regulation and accreditation, the function of disbursal of grants to the centrally funded HEIs shall be accordingly ensured through mechanisms devised by the ministry which will be similar to or better than the existing mechanisms," he said.

"The feedback of the Regulatory Council on the institutional performance shall be the major factor to decide the quantum of funds to be distributed through the MoE (Ministry of Education) to the HEIs, as to ensure transparency and public accountability it is necessary to take a holistic view while disbursing grants to them. The other major support to all the HEIs like JRF (junior research fellowship) and SRF (senior research fellowship) will continue to be through a similar type of mechanism," he added.

The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier named the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) 2025, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which seeks to merge three 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 commission called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.

Currently, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions in India, the AICTE oversees technical education and the NCTE regulates teacher education. Under the proposed commission, there will be three councils for regulation, accreditation and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions (HEI) in India.

The members of the opposition have raised concerns that it could undermine institutional autonomy.

Congress MP Manish Tewari had on Monday said the Bill may lead to "excessive centralisation" of education. He said the Bill suffers from excessive delegation of legislative power ranging from accreditation frameworks, degree of granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy and even supersession which are left to be determined by rules, regulations and executive direction.

DMK MP T M Selvaganapathy claimed that the Union government will practically be the sole decision-making authority if the Bill is passed, which is against the spirit of the Constitution. PTI GJS GJS KSS KSS