New Delhi: The HRD minister today announced in the Parliament that there would be two commissions set up – one would be dedicated to providing grants and the other would be carrying out regulatory functions. This was done after members raised concerns over the future of UGC. The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry in June released a draft bill. In the bill, it was proposed that a Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) would soon replace the existing higher education regulator, University Grants Commission (UGC).

“There would be two commissions — one for providing grants and the other for carrying out regulatory functions. That is the whole idea,” PTI quoted as the minister was saying during the Question Hour.

According to the HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar’s statement, the ministry is in the process of finalization of the draft Higher Education Commission of India Bill, 2018 based on all the suggestions or comments received from various stakeholders. He also informed the Lok Sabha that the government had received more than 10,000 suggestions from various quarters of the society.

As per the minister’s statement, the grant disbursal function to universities and colleges is now proposed to be located in an entity which functions in a very transparent, merit-based approach through an ICT (Information and Communication Technology) enabled platform.

Earlier to that the decision to put the power of awarding grants to an advisory council headed by the Union Minister for HRD was very much criticized by the academic community over the grounds that it would result in politicization.

Apart from that, he also said that the rights of states would not be controlled after the creation of the new body. He further added that there would not be any kind of change at all in all the existing reservations for OBC, SC, and others.

“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,” Mr. Javadekar said.

The draft bill now wants to enable the Commission to be able to perform its role much more effectively in attaining standards and enhancing the quality of higher education, he said.

While responding to several concerns raised by members in the House, Mr. Javadekar said the draft bill has been amended and that would further go to the Cabinet for approval.

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