Government is all set to scrap the UGC and AICTE and replace them with one higher education regulator
Words: Vandana Devi Images: Various Sources
Modi government is getting ready to scrap the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and replace them both with one higher education regulator, tentatively named – Higher Education Empowerment Regulation Agency (HEERA).
With this, all the overlaps in jurisdiction will be eliminated and it will also do away with the regulatory provisions that are no longer relevant. This is touted to be one of the most cleanest, sweeping reforms in education.
The new regulatory legislation is likely to be short and clean and will outline the minimum standards, focussing on outcomes. The separation of technical and non-technical education is out of sync with global practices and this single regulator will bring greater synergy among institutions in framing their curriculum.
While this idea of replacing the different regulatory authorities is not new, and several committees set up during the UPA rule did recommend the same, it never happened. But now work is apparently progressing at a rapid pace to frame the HEERA legislation with the Human Resource Development ministry and the Niti Aayog working on the same.